Snow blankets Kashmir, day mercury plummets; Gulmarg freezes at minus 4 Deg Cel
Srinagar: Kashmir has been blanketed in snow as day temperatures plummeted on Friday across the Valley with famous skiing resort of Gulmarg recording maximum of minus 4 degrees Celsius while night temperature settled at minus 10 degrees Celsius
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In Srinagar, the summer capital of the state, and other places of Kashmir, it started snowing around 1500 hours and entire Valley has been blankets in white blanket. The mercury dipped to 3.7 degree Celsius in capital, a meteorological department official said. He said night temperature plunged to minus 3.2 degree Celsius in capital last night.
The official said Qazigund the gateway town to the Valley recorded maximum of 3.8 degrees Celsius (below 4 degree from normal) and low of minus 0.8 degrees Celsius, while the nearby Kokernag registered a low of minus 1.0 and maximum of 3.2 degrees Celsius.
The night temperature in Pahalgam, also in south Kashmir, settled at a low of minus 6.8 degrees Celsius while it had maximum of 0.5 degrees Celsius, the official told INS.
The ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded the minimum temperature of minus 10.0 degrees Celsius and was coldest place in the Valley as day temperature dropped to minus 4 degrees Celsius, he said.
Kupwara in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 4.6 degrees Celsius while it had maximum of 3.2 degrees Celsius, he said.
Kashmir is currently under the grip of ‘Chillai-Kalan’ the 40-day harshest period of winter when the chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum and the temperature drops considerably.
‘Chillai-Kalan’ ends on January 31, but the cold wave continues even after that in Kashmir.
The 40-day period is followed by a 20-day long ‘Chillai-Khurd’ (small cold) and a 10-day long ‘Chillai-Bachha’ (baby cold).
Regarding the forecast for next 24 hours, the weatherman said that there was possibility of “light to moderate rain/snow at widespread places with isolated heavy falls very likely over the state.”
