SRINAGAR BRAVES SEASON’S COLDEST NIGHT; RAINS LIKELY TODAY

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir summer capital Srinagar braved the coldest night of the season with the temperature dropping below the freezing point, as the Met office said the dry spell in the Valley was likely to end this week. The temperature dipped to minus 0.7 degree Celsius - three notches below the normal - in Srinagar last night, a Met department official said. The minimum temperature at other places in the Valley, except in Kokernag in south Kashmir, stayed below the freezing point. Kokernag recorded a low of 3.6C. The minimum temperature in nearby Qazigund settled at minus 0.4C, the Met department official said. He said Pahalgam, also in south Kashmir, recorded minus 1.7C, while the popular ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded a minimum of minus 0.6C. The mercury in Kupwara, in north Kashmir, settled at a low of minus 2.3C; in Leh at minus 4.9C, while the nearby Kargil registered a minimum of minus 3.4C. A MET office forecast said on Monday that scattered to fairly widespread rainfall was expected over the next five days. The rainfall would end the prevalent dry spell in the Valley.