Icy chill benumbs Kashmir valley

The cold wave has intensified in the valley with Leh town in the Ladakh region being the coldest place in the state as the mercury there fell to -14°C. An official of the Meteorological Department here said the minimum temperature in Leh registered a drop of two degrees on Monday as compared to the previous night.
He said the nearby Kargil town recorded a low of -11.4°C, slightly up from -12.1°C a night earlier.
Gulmarg registered a slump of nearly eight degrees in the night temperature as the minimum settled at -8.8°C compared to the previous night’s -1.0°C. The mercury in Pahalgam dropped more than three degrees to settle at – 7.5°C, the official said. Srinagar, the summer capital of the state, recorded a low of -0.3°C while Qazigund and Kokernag recorded -0.8°C and -1.3°C, respectively. The night temperature in Kupwara town dropped nearly two degrees to settle at -2.5°C.
The Methas forecast mainly dry weather over the next 24 hours. — PTI