Day temperature up in Jammu and Kashmir, MeT predicts dry weather for eight days

: The day temperature has climbed above normal substantially as the weather continues to improve in Jammu and Kashmir with fair weather prediction by MeT on Sunday for the next eight days.

The weather was dry on Sunday with the sun shining bright in Kashmir valley, though there were some areas with partly cloudy skies.

“The weather was mainly clear with (some instances of) partly cloudy sky,” the MeT said in a weather update.

Kashmir’s mountainous ski resort of Gulmarg had received snowfall and rains had lashed the plains on Wednesday and intervening nights of Wednesday and Thursday.

The maximum temperatures on Saturday were 4-5 degrees above normal at most places of Kashmir valley while night temperatures were 1-3 degrees below normal on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. Similarly, the mercury hovered 1-5 degrees above normal in many places of Jammu division while temperatures during night were 1 degree below normal in Jammu districts.

In Kashmir, the MeT update said that the maximum temperature in the summer capital Srinagar on Saturday was 23.7 degree Celsius, some 5.2 degrees above normal. The minimum temperature in the district was 5.1 degree Celsius during the intervening night.

Kupwara (north Kashmir), Konibal (south-central Kashmir) and Qazigund (extreme south) recorded maximum temperatures of 23.8, 23.5 and 23.0 degrees Celsius, respectively on the previous day, all above normal by 4-5 degrees. The night temperatures in the three places were 2.5, 1.5 and 4.4 degrees Celsius, respectively.

The tourist resort of Pahalgam in south Kashmir witnessed 20.5 degrees Celsius while it was 12.6 degree Celsius in the ski resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir. Pahalgam’s minimum temperature was recorded at 0.5 degree Celsius while it was 1.5 degrees in Gulmarg.

In the Jammu division, the maximum temperature of 32.4 degrees Celsius was observed in Kathua while Jammu district saw mercury climbing to 31.6 degrees.

The MeT department has predicted mainly dry weather from April 9 to 16 cautioning about a further increase in temperatures. “There will be significant improvement in day temperature,” said an official of MeT

“Outlook for the subsequent next 3 days is generally cloudy with light rain at few places. Afternoon local thunderstorm activity can’t be ruled out during the above period particularly April 10 and 11 afternoon or late afternoon,” the official said.

The department issued an advisory to farmers to spray their orchards during the dry period.

J&K has been receiving intermittent light rains since the last week of March with rains bringing down temperatures in most parts of the union territory.

The MeT said that the month of March witnessed a large deficit of rainfall in many districts of Kashmir Division (average deficit was 69%) and also in many districts of Jammu Division, where average departure below normal was 44%.