*Temp rises in Valley ahead of wet weather
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU/ SRINAGAR, Jan 7: Entire Jammu and Kashmir continued to be under the grip of severe cold while dense fog badly affected train and air-traffic, resulting into cancellation of two flights today.
Western Disturbances have started showing impact on the weather in the region. Light rain and snowfall on the higher reaches at some isolated places has been reported and it will continue for next two days, a MeT official said.
A senior official of Airport Authority of India at Jammu said that two Indigo morning flights were canceled at Jammu airport due to dense fog while several morning flights were delayed due to poor visibility and bad weather. He, however, said afternoon flights operated as per schedule.
A Northern Railway spokesman said that at least 32 trains were operating late by one to seven hours at Delhi/ Amritsar Railway Stations. Amritsar-Bilaspur Chhattisgarh Express was late by 7 hours, Nizamuddin-Jabalpur Express by 6 hours, New-Delhi-Barauni Express, Gaya- New Delhi and Mumbai- Amritsar Exp by 3 hours and so on.
At Jammu Railway Station, Hemkund Express arrived late by two hours, Jhelum Express by 6 hours, Humsafar Express by 7 hours, Gajipur Express by 9 hours, Sealdah by 3 hrs 40 minutes, Begumpura Exp by 3 hrs 30 minutes, Amarnath Express by 4 hours, Malwa Exp by 12 hours while Shalimar Express was late by one hour 40 minutes from its scheduled time.
Meanwhile, Jammu recorded 9.6 degree Celsius temperature during the day which was about 8.5 deg below normal. The night temperature showed a little improvement and was recorded as 5.0 deg C. Katra Mata Vaishnodevi recorded a minimum temperature of 7.6 deg C and maximum 17.8 deg C, Bhaderwah minimum 2.8 deg C and maximum 17.0 deg C while Batote minimum 5.1 deg C and maximum 16.0 degrees Celsius today.
Reports from Srinagar said that ahead of wet weather, there was considerable rise in minimum temperature today with most of the places recording temperatures above normal.
A Meteorological Department official said that Srinagar recorded a low of minus 1.4°C against last night’s minus 5.5°C. Today’s minimum temperature was 0.5°C above normal.
Qazigund recorded a low of minus 1.6°C against minus 5.6°C. Today’s minimum temperature was 1.5°C above normal.
Pahalgam recorded a low of minus 2.8°C against minus 8.6°C the previous night. Today’s minimum temperature was 4.2°C above normal for the place. The coldest night recorded this season for the tourist resort was on January 2 when mercury plunged to minus 9.6°C.
Kokernag recorded a low of minus 1.4°C against minus 4.3°C the previous night. It was 2.6°C above normal for the place.
Gulmarg recorded a low of minus 2.6°C against minus 5.0°C the previous night. It was 2.6°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 2.6°C against minus 5.6°C the previous night. The temperature was 0.9°C above normal.
Leh and Kargil recorded a low of minus 10.8°C and minus 14.8°C respectively.
“Two back to back Western Disturbances (are) most likely to affect J&K and adjoining areas from 7th January (evening),” the Meteorological Department official said, adding, “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.” 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 11(afternoon) to January 13 (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,” he added.
Kashmir is under the grip of Chillai-Kalan, the 40-day long harsh winter period that started on December 21 and it will end on January 30. It is followed by a 20-day-long period called ‘Chillai-Khurd’ that occurs between January 30 and February 19 and a 10-day-long period ‘Chillai-Bacha’ (baby cold) which is from February 20 to March 1.
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