Unprecedented Highs Rewrite Temperature Records

Srinagar: As winter’s conventional script has taken an unprecedented turn this year, places across Jammu and Kashmir marked some of the warmest days of January witnessed in many years. Srinagar recorded a maximum of 15.0°C on Saturday, the “warmest” day in 14 years in the middle of ‘Chillai-Kalan’, vernacularly considered the harshest period of winter.

The previous record high of 14.2°C was set on January 21, 2018. The all-time highest temperature ever recorded in Srinagar is 17.2°C on January 23, 1902.

A meteorological department official said today’s temperature was the sixth highest record temperature in over a century. “Srinagar recorded 15.5°C on January 9, 1976; 15.7°C on January 31, 2001; 15.8°C on January 25, 2010; and 17.2°C on January 23, 1902,” he said.

Independent weather forecaster, Faizan Arif, said that first January readings for

Srinagar were taken in 1892 and today marked the sixth highest maximum temperature in Srinagar since then.

He added that not only Srinagar, maximum temperature at many stations recorded 6-8°C above normal with highest maximum temperature recorded over Banihal station at 20.8°C. Srinagar continued to be around 6.1°C warmer than Jammu that recorded a maximum temperature of 8.9°C.

According to Faizan, Saturday’s temperature in Qazigund reached 15.8°C, marking the third-highest reading since the establishment of the observatory in 1956. It stands as the highest temperature documented in the last 14 years, even though it fell short of breaking the record of 16.0°C set on January 29, 2010, and the all-time high of 16.2°C recorded on January 31, 2001.

In Pahalgam, the temperature was 13.1°C, making it the third-highest since1978. While it didn’t surpass the alltime high of 13.8°C on January 14, 2018, today’s reading is the highest in the last 6 years.

Kupwara experienced a temperature of 15.8°C , ranking as the highest in the last 9 years and fourth-highest since the