Sunny winter day in Kashmir as day temps climb above normal

Following the snowfall on January 4-5, the sky was sunny across most places of the valley, including in summer capital Srinagar

Many places of Kashmir witnessed bright sunshine on Tuesday as day temperatures climbed above normal nearly after two weeks of extreme chill in the Himalayan region.

People walking in backdrop of snow covered hills in the outskirts of Srinagar on Tuesday. (Waseem Andrabi /HT)

Following the snowfall on January 4-5, the sky was sunny across most places of the valley, including in summer capital Srinagar.

“It was a relatively better day in Srinagar after weeks of cold and cloudy weather. The sunny winter day melted most of the snow spread over fields and roofs of the houses in the region. I think the coming night’s temperature will fall drastically,” said Aijaz Ahmad, a vegetable farmer of Srinagar.

The meteorological centre in Srinagar said that the maximum temperatures on Tuesday were above normal in most of the weather stations of the Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier on December 26, the region had witnessed above normal temperatures in most of the weather stations which was followed by two bouts of light to moderate snowfall on December 27 and January 4-5.

The summer capital Srinagar recorded a maximum of 8.6 degree Celsius, some 2 notches above normal. The night temperature in the city was 0.9 degree Celsius, some 2.8 notches above normal.

“The highest day temperatures were witnessed in north Kashmir’s Kupwara at 9.5 degree Celsius and south Kashmir’s Qazigund at 9 degree Celsius,” said an official of MeT.

The ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded a maximum of 3.4 degree Celsius after the mercury had plunged to -6.6 degree Celsius during the night.

Pahalgam tourist resort in south witnessed a day temperature of 6.6 degree Celsius after recording the coldest night at -7.8 degree Celsius, the only place with below normal night temperature in the valley.

The MeT said that the weather is expected to be dry for the next one week barring some light snowfall at isolated places.

“On January 11-12, the weather will be generally cloudy with light snow at isolated to scattered places,” it said in an update.

The Valley’s harsh winter period which started on December 21 will end by the end of January. This winter is expected to be harsher with some good spells of precipitation owing to the La Nina global weather effect.