SRINAGAR, December 30: Kashmir witnessed a marginal improvement in night temperatures and foggy conditions, although the minimum temperature continued to stay below freezing point, officials reported on Saturday.
Over the past five days, parts of the Valley, including Srinagar, experienced dense fog in the morning. However, on Saturday, there was a slight improvement in visibility.
The Meteorological Centre Srinagar indicated that the weather would persist as cloudy and dry, with moderate to dense fog over the plains of Kashmir and the Jammu division until December 31, attributed to an approaching feeble Western disturbance.
“Fog is likely to continue until January 4 due to the absence of any major wet spell,” mentioned Mukhtar Ahmad, the director of MeT’s Srinagar center.
Kashmir entered its harshest 40-day winter period, known as “Chilla-i-Kalan,” last week, with temperatures consistently below freezing at many locations.
MeT reported that the minimum temperature in Srinagar settled at minus 2.8 degrees Celsius, a slight increase of 0.5 notches from the previous night when it recorded minus 3.3 degrees Celsius.
In North Kashmir’s Gulmarg resort, the minimum temperature remained constant at -2.5°C, while in the frontier Kupwara town, it was recorded at -2.3°C.
The Konibal area on the outskirts of Srinagar and the Pahalgam tourist resort registered minimum temperatures of minus 4.5°C and minus 2.0°C, respectively. Pahalgam observed an improvement of over three degrees from the previous night.
In the southern gateway town of Qazigund, the mercury dropped to a low of minus 2.2 °C.
MeT has forecasted light snow at isolated higher reaches on January 4.
