A girl warming her feet using traditional Kashmiri firepot (Kangri) in Srinagar outskirts on Saturday | KO Photo: Abid Bhat
Srinagar- The second lowest December night temperature in ten years was recorded in Srinagar as the cold wave continued its firm grip across the Valley, the weatherman said on Saturday.
The mercury in the summer capital of the J&K plummeted to minus 6.6 °C, making it the second-lowest December night since 2010. While mercury on 27 December 2010 settled exactly the same as recorded overnight, it had plummeted to minus 7.7°C on 27 December 2018 and was the lowest in 28 years.
On December 7, 1990, the minimum temperature had settled at minus 8.8 degree Celsius in Srinagar, the official said. The lowest ever temperature in December was minus 12.8 which was recorded on 13th of the month in 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 famous skiing resort, recorded a low of minus 9.6 degrees Celsius, two degrees up from the previous two nights.
However, he 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 degree Celsius against 9.2 on the previous night. Qazigund recorded minus 5.9°C, Kupwara minus 6.0°C and Kokernag minus 6.0°C.
“Drass town in Ladakh recorded minus 29 as the minimum temperature which is the lowest recorded far,” the official added.
Leh town recorded minus 18.3 and Kargil minus 21.1 as the minimum temperatures.
Due to harsh weather conditions, people are facing a lot of problems. The water from taps has 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 for the inhabitants.
The weatherman has forecast mainly dry weather over Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh for 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).
Landslide Blocks Highway
Jammu-Srinagar highway, the only road link connecting Kashmir Valley with the outside world, was closed on Saturday evening.
The officials said that the highway was blocked due to a landslide near Chanderkot in Ramban district. They said that efforts were ongoing to restore the thoroughfare as men and machinery has been pressed into service to clear the debris.
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