Unlike last year, nights are colder, days warmer this month

Anantnag: The MeT department in Kashmir has predicted that there will be no major snowfall in the next two weeks, which might mean colder nights and warmer days will continue, unlike last year when snowfall started early in November.
“There are meagre chances of snowfall on November 25, in the extreme north of Kashmir,” an official of the MeT department said on Monday.
Apart from that, he said, there is no forecast of any snow till the end of this month. “The dry weather will prolong the prevailing weather conditions, where we have been witnessing colder nights and warmer days,” the official said.
The cold wave, during the nights, in particular, has gripped Kashmir valley as the capital city of Srinagar recorded a minimum temperature of minus 1.7, beating the season’s lowest of minus 1.5 degrees Celsius a couple of days ago.
“Sub-zero temperatures prevail across the valley, including in south and north Kashmir. Pahalgam in Anantnag district reeled under minus 3.7 degrees Celsius last night,” the official said, adding that in Qazigund, the mercury went down to minus 2 degrees Celsius.
The temperatures, the official said, were considerably lower than in the past few years, primarily because Kashmir witnessed wet weather during this time of the year. “Occasional snowfall and rains in November last year meant the nights were warmer and the days were colder,” the official said. “This year, the weather has remained dry and the temperatures have been opposite to what they were last year.”
So far, November 22 has been the coldest day this year with a minimum temperature of minus 1.6 degrees Celsius in Srinagar, minus 8.6 in Leh, and minus 4.7 in Pahalgam.
“However, if you compare it with the same day last year, the temperature is considerably higher,” Sonam Lotus, Director of the MeT department in Kashmir, told Kashmir Reader.
He said that Srinagar, on November 22 last year, shivered at minus 3 degrees Celsius.
“Similarly, the temperature in Leh was minus 12.3-degree Celsius, about 4 degrees lower than this year. In Pahalgam the temperature recorded on November 22 last year was minus 6.5 degrees Celsius, way lower than what we witnessed today,” Lotus said.
He maintained that it is a normal winter so far and the people are feeling the chill mainly because of colder nights in the region.

Suhail A Shah