Met Dept adds 4 forecast stations in J&K

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 28

The Indian Meteorological Department has added four new stations in Jammu and Kashmir, taking the number of places to 15 in the UT for which it provides forecast and weather details.

The addition of new places includes two from the Kashmir valley and two from the Jammu division. The list is available on the website of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

The two new stations in the Kashmir valley are the Dal Lake and Srinagar airport.

The two news stations in the Jammu division are the Jammu airport and Mata Vaishno Devi shrine.

The IMD already had 11 stations in Jammu and Kashmir for which it provided weather details on daily basis and forecast for seven days.

In the Kashmir valley, the existing stations were Gulmarg resort and frontier Kupwara town in north Kashmir, Pahalgam resort, Qazigund highway town and Kokernag town in south Kashmir and Srinagar city in central Kashmir.

In the Jammu division, the existing stations were Banihal, Batore, Bhaderwah, Jammu city and Katra.

The addition of the four new stations will further improve the localised forecast in the region where erratic weather has caused widespread damage in recent years.

The Kashmir valley has witnessed lengthy spells of drought, flooding and major snowstorms in recent years as well as snowfalls as early as in autumn and mid-summer.

The dissemination of the forecast and other weather-related information has been badly hit in recent months due to communication suspension.

Rain, snow in Kashmir

• The Kashmir valley received a fresh spell of precipitation on Tuesday. Srinagar city received light rainfall while remote mountainous areas received snowfall.
• The Meteorological Department said rain and snow were likely to continue for next 24 hours, following which there would be decrease in precipitation.
• The fresh rain and snow caused a considerable increase in the night temperature which was recorded at a low of 0.6°C in the city here.