Kashmir’s main city Srinagar recorded its warmest February night in 57 years as the temperature overnight dropped to a low of 7.4 degrees Celsius, which was six degrees above the normal.
The overnight minimum temperature marked the warmest February night in Srinagar since 1964.
An official of the Srinagar Meteorological Centre told The Kashmir Walla that the last night’s temperature was slightly higher than the previously warmest February night of 2004.
The official said the 2004 temperature of 7.3 degrees Celsius was the then warmest February night temperature in forty years.
Kashmir region has registered rapidly increasing temperatures during the past fortnight. The region had, otherwise, recorded freezing climatic conditions during the last two months when the temperatures had fallen to record low levels.
The maximum temperature yesterday, 18.6 degrees Celsius, in Srinagar was eight degrees above the normal.
February, an intermediate month between Kashmir’s brute winter and rejuvenating spring, has a mean minimum temperature of minus 0.2 degrees Celsius while the mean maximum temperature is 8.8 degrees Celsius.
The lowest ever recorded temperature during February in Srinagar was in 1895 when the mercury in the city had plunged to minus 20 degrees Celsius.