Srinagar: Light snow lashed Srinagar and other parts of the Valley, on Tuesday, even sub-zero temperatures were recorded overnight in most places across the Kashmir Valley.
Amid heavy cloud cover, there was a light snowfall in Srinagar where minimum temperature settled at 0.0°C, a Meteorological Department (MeT) official said. The snow recorded in twenty-four hours till 8:30 am was equivalent to 0.8mm in Srinagar while Gulmarg received 23mm fresh snow, highest across the Valley, during the same time.
Gulmarg, the world famous skiing resort recorded a low of minus 7.5°C against minus 6.5 °C on the previous night, the MeT official said. Pahalgam, the famous tourist destination in south Kashmir, recorded a low of minus 3.0°C against minus 1.3 °C on the previous night. Qazigund recorded minus 0.4°C and received snow or rain of 1.8mm, Kupwara minus 1.0°C and rain or snow of 2.4mm, and Kokernag minus 3.0°C and rain or snow of 0.5mm.
Kashmir is in the middle Chillai-Kalan, the forty-day winter period which commenced on 21 December and ends on 31 January. The period is considered the harshest of the winter when the chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum.
The cold wave, however, continues even after that in Kashmir with a twenty-day-long ‘Chillai-Khurd‘ (small cold) and a ten-day-long ‘Chillai–Bachha‘ (baby cold).
The weatherman has forecast light rain or snow over Jammu and Kashmir in the next twenty-four hours.
“Scattered light snow in Kashmir Division, Isolated in Jammu (Pirpanjal Range) and Ladakh,” the official said. For the subsequent two days, mainly dry weather has been predicted. (GNS)
