Kashmir Weather
9.3°C below the normal level. The all-time lowest maximum temperature is 5°C recorded in 1986,” Faizan posted on X.
“Same region, with one recording all-time highest and another recording one of the alltime lowest,” he added, comparing the weather patterns of Jammu and Srinagar. “One with cold, one with heat, one without snow, one with fog.”
Interestingly, this year, January has brought an unprecedented temperature surge to Banihal as well, breaking all the previous records.
“Banihal today recorded a maximum temperature of 23.4 degrees Celsius, which is 13.1 degrees Celsius above normal,” Faizan said. The previous all-time record was 22.6°C recorded on 18 January 2003.
Qazigund recorded a low of minus 4.6 degrees against minus 4.4 degrees Celsius, while in the ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir it was minus 3.5 degrees Celsius, up from minus 5.0 degrees Celsius recorded the previous night.
Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, which serves as one of the base camps for the annual Amarnath Yatra, recorded a minimum temperature of minus 6.3 degrees Celsius.
The minimum temperature in Kokernag town settled at minus 2.4 degrees Celsius while it was minus 5.3 degrees Celsius in Kupwara.
Kashmir is currently under the grip of “Chilla-i-Kalan”, a 40-day harsh winter period, when a cold wave sweeps the region and temperatures drop considerably leading to the freezing of water bodies as well as water in pipes.
The chances of snowfall are the highest during this period and most areas, particularly the higher reaches, receive heavy snowfall.
Kashmir has been going through a prolonged dry spell and a 79 per cent deficit in rainfall was recorded for December while there has been no precipitation in the first week of January.
There has been no snowfall in most plain areas of Kashmir, while the upper reaches of the valley have received lesser than usual amounts of snow.
The meteorological department has forecast mainly dry weather till January 20 but added that a feeble Western Disturbances would affect Jammu & Kashmir after January 16.