Jammu and Kashmir to get more snow due to Western Disturbance, says IMD

Reeling under intense cold, Jammu and Kashmir is expected to be hit by another wet weather system from January 22, meteorological officials said.

They said a Western Disturbance and the winds from the Mediterranean are most likely to affect Jammu and Kashmir and Kargil district of Ladakh between January 22nd and 25th.

Director MeT, Sonam Lotus said that the disturbances will result in fairly widespread light to moderate snowfall and rains in the plains of Jammu during the period with main activity on January 24th.

"This system is much weaker than the previous one. So we expect precipitation of lower intensity compared to the previous one," said Lotus.

Many parts of the UT received widespread and heavy snowfall from January 3 to January 8, resulting in the closing of the Srinagar-Jammu highway and affecting air traffic for days together.

After the precipitation, the Kashmir valley has been reeling under intense cold, leading to the freezing of water bodies and snowed roads and fields.

Lotus said that Srinagar, the summer capital of J&K, recorded a minimum temperature of -8.4 deg C on 14th January which broke the previous record of -8.3 deg C registered 25 years ago in 1995.

"There was complete freezing of the Dal Lake with kids playing on the frozen lake, which happened after almost three decades," he said.

The weather office said that the coldest place in the valley on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday was Qazigund in south Kashmir, where the mercury plunged to minus 9 degree Celsius, around 5.7 notches below normal.

The ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded minus 4. 2 degrees C while the temperature went to minus 8.7 degrees C in the tourist resort of Pahalgam.

“The summer capital of Srinagar froze at minus 7.6 degree C, some 5.5 degrees lower than the normal,” said Mohammad Hussain Mir, a meteorologist of MeT centre in Srinagar.

Jammu division’s Bhaderwah and Batote regions recorded temperatures of 1.5 degrees C and 4.2 degrees C, respectively.

In the union territory of Ladakh, Leh registered a temperature of minus 12.1 degrees C while Kargil was even colder at minus 17.4 degrees C. The coldest place in the country, Drass, recorded a bone chilling minus 25.6 degrees C temperature.