Christmas brings relief to dry spell hit J&K

Jammu/Srigar, Dec 25: Christmas brought some relief for the dry spell hit Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday as the weather office forecast light rain and snowfall at isolated places in the state.

“There was light rain during the night in Katra, Bhaderwah and Bannihal areas of the Jammu region while there was rainfall in Kashmir Valley’s Qazigund town,” an official of the MET department reported. “During the next 24 hours, we are expecting light rain in the plains and some snowfall in the higher reaches of the state.” Due to a cloud cover, the night temperatures also improved throughout the state on Sunday. The lowest recorded night temperature was minus 2.2 against Saturday’s minus 4.4 in Srigar while the maximum temperature on Saturday was 8.0, the lowest day temperature this season so far in Srigar. The weather office said the night’s lowest was minus 2.9 in Pahalgam and minus 4.6 in Gulmarg on Sunday. “Kargil town was the coldest town in the state where the night temperature dropped to minus 9.9. Leh town recorded 9.4 as the night’s lowest,” the official said. “The night temperature improved to 11.9 in Jammu city on Sunday against Saturday’s 8.1. Katra town recorded 9.1, Batote 3.8, Bannihal 2.9 and Bhaderwah 0.1 as the minimum temperatures today,” he added. (IANS)