Cold wave hits Kargil valley; temperature falls to minus 11 degree

The bone-chilling cold returned as the night temperature plunged below the freezing point across Kashmir division after a brief respite owing to the rains in plains and snowfall in high altitude areas early this week.

The night temperature fell below the freezing point across the Valley after the four-day respite owing to cloud cover, a spokesman of the MeT office said. The spokesperson said Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, registered a dip of nearly three degrees in the night temperature which settled at minus 2.3 degrees after remaining above the freezing point for the past four nights.

Yesterday, the city had recorded a low of 0.5 degree Celsius. Kargil in frontier region of Ladakh was the coldest recorded place in the state with a low of minus 11.0 degree Celsius - down by nearly one degree. He said Leh town, also in Ladakh region, recorded a minimum of minus 10.0 degree Celsius against the previous night's minus 8.3 degree Celsius.

The famous ski resort of Gulmarg, the star attraction for tourists during winters, was the coldest recorded place in the Valley with a minimum of minus 6.2 degree Celsius - up by 1.2 degrees against the previous night, the spokesman said. The north Kashmir hill resort along with other high altitude areas experienced snowfall on Tuesday ending a long dry spell.

The plains including Srinagar were also lashed by intermittent rains the same day, much to the relief of people.