Minimum temperature marginally up

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, December 15

The relentless cold continues to blanket Kashmir, with a slight improvement in minimum temperatures at various locations on Friday. The biting cold in Jammu and Kashmir persisted as Srinagar recorded a low of -3.5°C. The Meteorological Centre in Srinagar forecast clear weather at most places today, but a Western Disturbance is expected to impact the region on Saturday, potentially bringing light snowfall to extremely high reaches of Jammu and Kashmir. Subsequently, dry and cold conditions are anticipated from December 17 to 24, with shallow to moderate fog likely in many places in the Kashmir division during this period.

Despite the night temperature improving, Srinagar continues to grapple with freezing conditions, recording -3.5°C after experiencing the season’s coldest night at -5.4°C a day ago. The current temperature is still 2.5°C below normal for this time of the year in Srinagar. The Meteorological Centre reported that Konibal in South Kashmir was the coldest place in Kashmir, recording -5.5°C last night. Pahalgam remained the next coldest place, reaching a low of -5.0°C against the -5.8°C recorded the previous night. It was 1.2°C below normal for the tourist hotspot.

Gulmarg’s minimum temperature improved slightly at -4.2°C against the -5°C on Thursday, being 0.8°C above normal for the famous ski resort. Qazigund on the Srinagar-Jammu highway also witnessed an improvement, recording -2.8°C against the -3.8°C recorded the previous night, while Kokernag dipped to -1.9°C against the -1.6°C recorded a day ago.

The minimum temperature at Kupwara settled at -4.2°C for the second consecutive day on Friday, remaining 2.5°C below normal for the frontier north Kashmir district, according to the MeT office.

Jammu recorded a minimum of 7.3°C, slightly warmer than the previous night’s 6.7°C but still below normal by 1.9°C for the winter capital of J&K. Other temperature recordings included Banihal at 1.7°C, Batote at 4.2°C, and Bhaderwah at 0.4°C.

In the next 24 hours, mainly dry weather is expected.