J&K’s weather turns cold, rainy after relatively hot Feb
SRINAGAR: After a relatively hot February, March is turning out to be cold and rainy with intermittent precipitation across Jammu and Kashmir.
After spells of rainfall and snowfall from March 7 to 14 across Kashmir, the weather office has predicted another wet spell.
“The weather on Monday was cloudy and dry. However, light rain in isolated places can be expected in the subsequent days,” said Sonam Lotus, director, meteorological centre.
Lotus said moderate rainfall cold be expected after March 20: “Moderate rainfall is likely on March 21 and 22 in Jammu and Kashmir along the Sonmarg -Drass axis,” he said.
Rainfall was witnessed across the Valley on Sunday. The ski resort of Gulmarg recorded 2.5cm snow. The wet and cloudy weather caused the maximum temperatures to dip across the Union territory.
The day temperature in Gulmarg plunged to 1°C while the night temperature plunged to -2.6°C. The summer capital, Srinagar, recorded a maximum temperature of 10.3°C against a normal temperature of 14.7°C on Sunday and a minimum temperature of 6.3°C during the night.
On Friday, the day temperature in Srinagar had dropped by 10 degrees to settle at 4.6°C against the normal 14.7°C.
“Weather, so far, has remained erratic in March. We are witnessing rainfall and snow every other day, which is why it is cold,” said deputy director meterological centre, Mukhtar Ahmad.
Although the month of February had witnessed a number of snow spells but the month also saw an abrupt increase in maximum temperatures. On February 22, the capital Srinagar had recorded a maximum of 18.6 degrees and Kupwara had gone even further to record 20.5 degrees.
Kashmir experienced harshest winter in 30 years with temperatures plunging to record levels in the month of January.
On January 31, Srinagar had recorded minus 8.8 degrees, lowest since the January of 1991.