Gulmarg, higher reaches receive light snow

Srinagar: The ski resort of Gulmarg and some upper reaches in Kashmir recorded a light snowfall on Saturday, officials said.

They said several places in Kashmir experienced partly to generally cloudy weather with light snow over the upper reaches. The wet weather on Saturday resulted from a western disturbance that hit Kashmir on Saturday afternoon.

Earlier, the night temperature improved slightly in north and central Kashmir due to cloud cover, however, it intensified further in south Kashmir.

The Meteorological Centre Srinagar said that all the weather stations in Kashmir recorded subzero temperatures on the intervening nights of Friday and Saturday.

They said the minimum temperature at Srinagar was recorded at minus 1.5 degrees Celsius, over two notches lower than Friday’s -3.5°C. Srinagar witnessed the coldest night of the season on Wednesday night as the minimum temperature plunged to -5.4°C.

Shopian in south Kashmir was the coldest place in Kashmir. The minimum temperature here was minus 6.5 degrees Celsius, against minus 4.8 °C previous night.

The night temperature at the famous tourist resort of Pahalgam was minus 5.1 degrees Celsius.

The gateway to Kashmir in South Kashmir, Qazigund, recorded a minimum of minus 3.8°C.The Kokernag area in south Kashmir observed a minimum of -3.6°C.

The ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded -2.8°C, and Kupwara recorded a low of -1.0°C.

The MeT said there would be an improvement in the minimum temperature due to the feeble western disturbance until Sunday, after which the night temperature is again likely to fall by 1-3 degrees.

The harshest period of winter, which lasts 40 days and is known as “chillai kalan” , will begin next week.

UNI