Srinagar: The second-lowest night temperature in ten years was recorded in Srinagar as the cold wave continued its firm grip across Kashmir, the weatherman said on Saturday.
The mercury in the Srinagar plummeted to minus 6.6°C, making it the second-lowest December night since 2010. While mercury on December 27, 2010, settled the same as recorded overnight, it had plummeted to minus 7.7°C on December 27, 2018, and was the lowest in 28 years.
On December 7, 1990, the minimum temperature had settled at minus 8.8°C in Srinagar, the official said. The lowest ever temperature in December was minus 12.8°C, recorded on December 13, 1934, the official said.
A meteorological department official said that today’s minimum temperature in Srinagar was almost five degrees below the normal for this time of the year.
The temperature also recorded a plunge overnight in other parts of the Valley with Gulmarg, the world-famous skiing resort, recording a low of minus 9.6°C, two degrees up from the previous two nights.
However, the official said, Gulmarg was the second coldest place in Kashmir Valley after Pahalgam, the famous tourist destination of the Valley which recorded a low of minus 9.5°C against 9.2°C on the previous night. Qazigund recorded minus 5.9°C, Kupwara minus 6.0°C and Kokernag minus 6.0°C.
Due to harsh weather conditions, people are facing a lot of problems. Water taps have frozen in many places, causing a lot of inconvenience to the people who mostly start their activity late in the morning. Some portions of the Dal Lake were also frozen due to the cold wave. The scheduled and unscheduled power cuts have made things worse.
The weatherman has forecast mainly dry weather in J&K and Ladakh for the next few days, post ‘Chillai-Kalan’, the 40-day period of harshest winter in Kashmir, which begins on December 21.
While it will end on January 31, the cold wave, however, continues even after that in Kashmir with a 20-day-long ‘Chillai-Khurd’ (small cold) and a 10-day-long ‘Chillai-Bachha’ (baby cold). (GNS)
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