Jammu and Kashmir to get rain, snow next week: MeT

The Meteorological Department said that the weather is expected to remain dry till October 17 in Jammu and Kashmir after which they expected it to take a wet turn

Jammu and Kashmir is expecting pre-winter moderate rainfall or snow next week, the weather office predicted on Thursday.

The weather was fair to partly cloudy at most places of J&K on Thursday. (AFP File Photo)

Officials of the Meteorological Department (MeT) in Srinagar said that the weather was fair to partly cloudy at most places of J&K on Thursday.

Director MeT, Sonam Lotus said that the weather is expected to remain dry till October 17 (Monday) after which they expected it to take a wet turn.

“Light to moderate rain or snowfall (over higher reaches) is very likely during 18-20th October in J&K with main activity on the 19th Oct with 60-70% chance of precipitation whereas mainly dry weather is expected till October 17th,” said Lotus.

There were light rains in some parts of J&K and snowfall in the higher reaches of south Kashmir on Monday and Tuesday.

The weather department has recorded a fall in day temperatures than normal in the past few days. The ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir witnessed a drop of 4.3 degree in maximum day temperature to settle the mercury at 11 degree Celsius on Wednesday while it dropped to 2.5 degree Celsius during the night. The tourist resort of Pahalgam in south Kashmir recorded a maximum of 17.4 degree Celsius on Wednesday and a minimum of 2.7 degree Celsius on the subsequent night.

The summer capital Srinagar saw 22.8 degree Celsius temperature during the day and 7.8 degree Celsius during the night.

Meteorologist Muhammad Hussain Mir said that a weather system under the influence of western disturbance is expected to hit the region on October 18-19.

“Most of its impact will be in Kashmir valley. The precipitation won’t be major,” he said.

Harud, autumn in Kashmir, has set in the last week of September while Chilai Kalan, Kashmir’s harshest 40-day winter period, starts December 21.

This year, Jammu and Kashmir received the much-needed normal rainfall this time after two years of deficit monsoon seasons, officials said. They said that Kashmir valley received 270mm average rainfall from June 1 to September 29, an increase of 6% than the normal of 254mm. Similarly, Jammu division experienced 886mm average rainfall in the four monsoon months, an increase of 7% than the normal 826mm.

Kashmir gets 70% of its precipitation through western disturbances – moisture laden winds from the Mediterranean – with normally January and February as snow months and March and April (receiving above 100mm each) as the wettest rain months.

But this year, Valley residents struggled due to hot and dry weather with temperatures hovering 8-10 degree above normal in March and April.