Gopal Sharma
SRINAGAR/JAMMU, Dec 27: While Srinagar and Jammu experienced season’s coldest night, the famous Dal Lake and other water bodies of Kashmir have frozen partially, whereas, with the continuous foggy weather conditions, the train and air-traffic has been badly hit in Jammu and other parts of northern region of the country.
A Met department official told the Excelsior that Jammu city recorded the lowest temperature of the season so far, showing 1.4 degree Celsius fall in the night temperature, as compared to yesterday. On Friday, Jammu recorded minimum temperature of 3.8 degree Celsius while today the minimum temperature has remained as low as 2.4 degree Celsius.
The official further said that with the little improvement in the cloudy weather conditions, the night temperature in Jammu is likely to further fall in next couple of days. As the Sun was visible for a couple of hours during the afternoon in Jammu and surrounding areas today, the day temperature today showed little improvement. While it was 9.3 degree Celsius on Friday, today the temperature gone up to 11.0 degree Celsius. But still it was 9 degree below normal temperature of the day.
Meanwhile, Dal Lake and other water bodies today froze partially as Srinagar witnessed the coldest night of this winter with mercury plunging to minus 5.6 degree Celsius making people to shiver.
As cold wave conditions intensified with mercury plunging nearly 1.5 degrees to settle at the season’s lowest minimum temperature so far, the world famous Dal lake froze today. Using oars to break a thick layer of ice, the boatmen were facing tough time to negotiate their way through the frozen surface of the lake. However, as the day progressed and sun came out, the ice melted.
While the freezing cold added to the woes of the residents, the tourists were happy to witness it and came out of their hotels on Boulevard to see the rare view.
The cold wave led to freezing of many other water bodies and drinking water taps in the city while early morning motorists faced difficulties due to a thin layer of frost on the roads. People were facing difficulty as the water taps inside their homes were frozen.
A Weather department official said that Qazigund recorded a low of -5.9 degree Celsius. He said Pahalgam tourist resort registered a minimum of – 7.4 degree Celsius, while the ski-resort of Gulmarg recorded a low of -4.7 degree Celsius.
He said that the mercury in Kupwara town settled at -5.7 degrees Celsius, while Kokernag registered a minimum of -2.3 degree Celsius. He said the night temperature in Leh, in the frontier Ladakh region, settled at -16.4 degree Celsius, which is also the season’s low so far. Kargil recorded a low of -14.5 degree Celsius. The day temperature in Leh was 2.8 degree C while in Kargil it was 0.0 degree Celsius.
Bhaderwah tourist resort of Jammu region recorded minimum temperature of 1.5 degree C and maximum 14.8 degree Celsius, Batote minimum 4.8 degree C and maximum 16 degree C while Katra ( Mata Vaishnodevi) minimum temperature of 5.4 degree C and maximum 16.7 degree C.
The weatherman has predicted foggy weather in plain areas of Jammu region in next two days and nearly fair weather in most parts of Kashmir valley. He has also ruled out any snow fall in next two days.
In Jammu, due to thick fog and poor visibility during morning hours, most of the flights could not land. SSP Airport, Randeep Kumar disclosed that most of the flights could land after around 1 pm as the visibility at the run way improved. He said though all the scheduled flights operated but most of them rescheduled for departure to different destinations. He said for the last about one week, most of the flights are arriving late from Delhi and other destinations.
Meanwhile, a Northern Railway spokesman said that due to dense fog in the region most of the trains are arriving late and some of them are re-scheduled for the respective destinations. He said Malwa’s scheduled time of reaching Jammu is 4.10 pm but it was expected to reach at around 10 pm. Pooja Express reaches at 8.10 am at Jammu station but the train had not reached even at 8 pm tonight and it was expected to reach here at around 10.15 pm.
Amarnath Express was about 11 hours late and it expected to reach Jammu station around midnight. Tata Moorie arrives at 2.10 pm but was expected around 8.45 pm. Similarly, Hemkund was around 1.30 hours late, Rajdhani around 2 hours, Shalimar two hours late, Bathinda-Jammu three hours, Utter Sampark Kranti 2 hours, Sarai Rohilla-Jammu three hours, Jammu-Kanpur three hours, Jammu Mail 3 hours, Jhelum Express 5 hours while Varanasi Express 10 hours late.
Due to foggy weather conditions vehicular traffic on the highways in the region was also badly affected. Many inter-state buses were arriving late from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and other destinations.
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