After 10 days of sunshine, Kashmir braces for another long wet spell

Srinagar: After 10 days of bright sunshine, the weather office on Saturday predicted intermittent mild wet spells in Jammu and Kashmir for the next nine days.

Weather officials said that three back-to-back western disturbances – winds blowing from the Mediterranean which bring rains or snow in the valley – will hit the region from Saturday.

“We expect wet spells from today till the end of the month. A feeble western disturbance is overhead today which has caused this cloudy cover, two more weather systems are expected on February 22 and 25 which may culminate on February 28,” said meteorologist, Mohammad Hussain Mir.

He said that there will be mostly rains in the plains and mild snowfall in the higher reaches. “We should expect daily spells of mild showers. On February 28 there is an expectation of snowfall in the plains as well,” he said.

After a bitter cold wave er in January, Kashmir has witnessed dry weather for more than 10 days now with day temperatures hovering 8-9 degrees above normal in the summer capital Srinagar.

On Friday, Srinagar recorded a high of 17.8 degree Celsius, 7.9 degrees above normal while the night temperature was 3.6 degrees.

“This night we witnessed an increase in minimum temperature owing to the cloud cover and we expect the day temperature to decrease now,” said Mir.

The ski resort of Gulmarg witnessed 9 degrees day temperature while it went down to zero degrees during the night. The highest day temperature was recorded in the northern district of Kupwara at 19.6 degrees.

In the union territory of Ladakh, Leh recorded a maximum of 6.9 degrees on Friday and a minimum of minus 5.5 degrees during the night.

This winter has been the harshest in Kashmir in 30 year with temperatures plunging to record levels in January. On January 31, Srinagar had recorded minus 8.8 degrees, lowest since January 1991.

Kashmir’s winter pans out in three stages, starting with the 40-day intense period from December 21(Chillai Kalan) followed by 20 more days that are less intense (Chillai Khurd) and lastly 10 days of mild cold (Chille Bache). (HT)