Srinagar, Dec 29; Light snow lashed Srinagar and other parts of Valley on Tuesday even sub-zero temperatures were recorded overnight in most places across the Kashmir Valley.
Amid heavy cloud cover, there was light snowfall in Srinagar where minimum temperature settled at 0.0°C, a MeT official said. The snow recorded in 24 hours till 0830 hours was equivalent to 0.8mm in Srinagar while Gulmarg received 23mm fresh snow, highest across the Valley, during the same time.
Gulmarg, the world famous skiing resort recorded a low of minus 7.5°C against minus 6.5 °C on previous night, the MeT official said. Pahalgam, the famous tourist destination in south Kashmir, recorded a low of minus 3.0°C against minus 1.3 °C on the previous night. Qazigund recorded minus 0.4°C and received snow or rain of 1.8mm, Kupwara minus 1.0°C and rain or snow of 2.4mm and Kokernag minus 3.0°C and rain or snow of 0.5mm.
Kashmir is in the middle Chillai-Kalan, the 40-day winter period which commenced on December 21 and ends on January 31. The period is considered the harshest of the winter when the chances of snowfall are most frequent and maximum.
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).
The weatherman has forecast light rain or snow over Jammu and Kashmir in next 24 hours.
“Scattered light snow in Kashmir Division, Isolated in Jammu (Pirpanjal Range) and Ladakh,” the official said. For subsequent two days, mainly dry weather has been predicted.
