Srinagar, 13 Jan: Cold wave conditions returned to Kashmir on Wednesday as the minimum temperatures in most parts of the Valley fell below minus 5-degree Celsius.
As per Kashmir Weather, an independent weather forecaster, Srinagar recorded a minimum temperature of minus 7.8°C – which is season’s lowest temperature and also lowest since 1995.
He said, “After 26 years, Srinagar recorded such a lowest temperature, albeit the record matches with the 14 Jan 2012 temperature.
Severe cold hit the city on January 02, 1995, when the mercury dipped to minus 8.3°C.”
Water taps, lakes, ponds and other water bodies were frozen in and around Srinagar in the morning.
The weather forecaster said the all-time low temperature recorded in the month of January in Srinagar was minus 14.4 degree Celsius on January 31, 1893.
The night temperature in Pahalgam also dropped six notches from the previous night’s low of minus 5.3° Celsius to settle at a low of minus 11.7° Celsius.
The minimum temperature in Gulmarg settled at minus 10.0° Celsius, as compared to the minus 11.2° Celsius recorded a night earlier, while Kupwara recorded a low of minus 5.6° Celsius against minus 1.8° Celsius recorded on Tuesday night.
Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir, recorded a low of minus 9.3° Celsius, over 8 notches down as compared to minus 1.4 degrees Celsius the previous night while mercury at Kokernag settled at a minimum of minus 9.9° Celsius.
Leh, in Ladakh region, recorded a low of minus 14.1° Celsius. The minimum temperatures in the nearby Kargil town settled at minus 19.6° Celsius, against previous night’s minus 14.4° Celsius.
Kashmir Weather has forecasted that the present cold wave in Jammu and Kashmir is likely to continue for another day, as no major change is expected.