Severe cold, dry weather continues in Kashmir

Srinagar, Jan 6 (Agency) Severe cold with dry weather conditions continued to prevail in Kashmir valley as night temperatures remained below freezing point across on Friday. The Meteorological Centre Srinagar said that the minimum temperature in Srinagar slightly improved on Friday and recorded at -3.0°C against the -3.8°C recorded on Thursday. It was -0.9°C below normal for the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir during this period of the season.The maximum temperature was 3.7°C above the normal of 6.9°C, against 10.6°C in Srinagar the previous day amid sun appearing during the day. The other stations in the valley also witnessed 3-4°C above-normal day temperatures. Qazigund on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway had a low of -3.0°C against the -3.4°C recorded the previous night, while Kokernag recorded at -2.0°C against the -2.4°C recorded a day ago. The mercury, although improved in Pahalgam, remained the coldest place in the valley with -4.5°C on Friday against the -5.1°C on Thursday.

It was 2.1°C above normal for the tourist hot spot of south Kashmir.Kupwara also recorded an improvement and settled at -2.6°C against the -3.9°C recorded a day ago. It was 0.1°C below normal for the north Kashmir district.There was an improvement in night temperature at Gulmarg and recorded at -3.5°C on Friday against -4.6°C recorded the previous night. It was still 3.5°C above normal for the famous ski resort of North Kashmir. The weather is likely to remain mainly dry today and partially cloudy with the possibility of very light snow over isolated, extreme higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir, MeT office said and added from January 6–7, the weather will mainly be dry. It said on January 8-9 the weather will turn cloudy over plains with possibility of light snow over isolated higher reaches of Jammu and Kashmir while from January 10-12 it would be generally dry all over.