Prolonged dry spell in Kashmir to finally break with rain, snowfall by month-end
The MeT office in Srinagar has predicted heavy to moderate snow and rainfall by the end of this month and Valley will be under cloud cover from Thursday afternoon.
As MeT office has predicted rain and snowfall in coming days which could end prolonged dryspell across Kashmir, especially at tourist spots of Gulmarg, Sonmarg and Pahalgam which are still snowless.
The MeT office in Srinagar has predicted heavy to moderate snow and rainfall by the end of this month and Valley will be under cloud cover from Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Pulwama and Shopian were the coldest places in Kashmir as night temperature dropped to minus 7.4 degrees Celsius at both places respectively, on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
All the weather stations in Kashmir observed above normal day temperatures, with Srinagar recording 11.4 degrees Celsius, 4.7 notches above normal.
The tourist resorts of Pahalgam in south Kashmir and Gulmarg recorded maximum temperatures of 10.2 and 6.8 degrees Celsius. Both the places saw sub-zero minimum temperatures during night.
Jammu, however, recorded a maximum of 9.6 degrees Celsius, over nine notches less than normal. Over the past few days, Srinagar has been warmer than summer capital due to foggy conditions in the plains of Jammu. Leh in Ladakh recorded 2.8 degrees Celsius day temperature.
MeT office in its daily bulletin said dry weather is likely to continue till January 24. “From January 25 to 26, the weather will be generally cloudy with light snow at isolated higher reaches. On January 27 and 28, the weather will be generally cloudy with light rain and snow over scattered places.”
“From January 29 to February 1, possibility of light to moderate rain and snow at many places is very likely. “There will be moderate to dense fog and fall in day temperature over plains of Jammu division during next two days,” the bulletin said.
Kashmir’s winter pans out in three stages, starting with the 40-day intense period from December 21, accompanied by most of the snowfall, followed by 20 days of comparatively less intense chill (Chilla-i-Khurd), and final 10 days of mild cold (Chill-e-Bache).
