WDs to bring snowfall in Kashmir, hilly areas of Jammu

People warm themselves near a bonfire in Srinagar on Friday. -Excelsior/Shakeel
People warm themselves near a bonfire in Srinagar on Friday. -Excelsior/Shakeel

Forecast of week-long wet weather in J&K

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR/JAMMU, Jan 6: The Western Disturbances are likely to affect weather in Jammu and Kashmir from tomorrow, causing rain and snowfall in Kashmir and parts of Jammu while dense fog continued to hit train and air services in the region for the last several days.
The Weatherman today said that two week-long back-to-back Western Disturbances (WDs) are mostly likely to affect Jammu and Kashmir from tomorrow evening and will lead to snowfall in the Valley.
“Two back-to-back Western Disturbances are most likely to affect J&K and adjoining areas from 7th January (evening),” a Meteorological Department official said here.
“Under the influence of the 1st WD 7th (evening) to 9th January (afternoon), weather is likely to be cloudy with possibility of light snow over higher reaches during 7th night and light rain/snow over plains of J&K and light to moderate snow in middle and higher reaches during January 8th/9th,” he said.
From January 9th (afternoon) to 11th January (afternoon), he said, weather is likely to be cloudy with possibility of light snow over isolated higher reaches of Kashmir.
“Under the influence of the 2nd WD from January 11th (afternoon) to 13th January(afternoon), the weather is expected to be cloudy with possibility of light rain/snow over plains of Jammu and Kashmir and light to moderate snow over middle and higher reaches during 12/13 January,” the official said.
He advised travellers and transporters to plan their journey accordingly especially over Sonamarg-Zojila-Gumri axis, Razdan Pass, Sinthan Pass, Sadhna Pass and Mughal Road.
“There is going to be an improvement in minimum (night) temperature and dip in maximum (day) temperature”, he added.
Meanwhile, severe cold conditions continued in Kashmir even as there was a slight rise in the minimum temperature today.
Srinagar recorded a low of minus 5.5°C against last night’s minus 6.4°C that was coldest for the season so far. Today’s minimum temperature was 3.6°C below normal.
Qazigund recorded a low of minus 5.6°C against minus 6.2°C, the lowest recorded this season for the town. Today’s minimum temperature was 2.7°C below normal.
Pahalgam recorded a low of minus 8.6°C against minus 9.2°C the previous night. The coldest night recorded this season in the tourist resort was on January 2 when mercury plunged to minus 9.6°C. Today’s minimum temperature was 1.6°C below normal for the place.
Kokernag recorded a low of minus 4.3°C against minus 4.4°C the previous night. It was 0.3°C below normal for the place.
Gulmarg recorded a low of minus 5.0°C against minus 7.5°C the previous night. It was 2.8°C above normal for the skiing resort which recorded its coldest night on January 2 when minimum temperature plummeted to minus 10.0°C.
In Kupwara town, the mercury settled at minus 5.6°C against minus 6.0°C the previous night. The temperature was 2.9°C below normal. Leh and Kargil recorded a low of minus 14.6°C and minus 18.1°C respectively.
Meanwhile, Jammu recorded a 9.9 degrees Celsius day temperature, which was about 8 degrees below normal. The night temperature in winter capital was recorded as 3.7 deg C showing slight improvement as compared to that of yesterday.
Holy township of Katra recorded a minimum temperature of 4.6 deg C and maximum 16.0 degrees, Bhaderwah town minimum temperature of 0.6 deg C, Banihal 5.4 deg C and Batote 3.6 deg C temperature.
Dr Mahinder Kumar, Chief Scientist, Agrometeorology, SKUAST Jammu said that Western Disturbances may enter J&K tonight and bring rain and snowfall at many places during next two days. The temperature in the region will also be affected with the WDs. After this, there will be some improvement in foggy weather conditions in plain areas of Jammu region and adjoining Punjab, he added.
With the ongoing foggy weather conditions several morning flights were delayed at Jammu airport today while two Indigo flights were cancelled. Most of the trains arriving at Jammu and Katra Stations were late by two to seven hours today. With this, huge rush of passengers was witnessed at these stations. The inter-state bus service has also been badly affected with the foggy weather conditions. The buses are arriving late by 2 to 3 hours from Delhi, Chandigarh, Haridwar and other locations.