SRINAGAR: Mercury dropped in many parts of North India on Saturday while fresh snowfall in most parts of Kashmir disrupted flight operations, cold weather conditions continued to prevail in most parts of Punjab and Haryana. The MeT department has forecast heavy rainfall and snow in Jammu and Kashmir till Monday. Meanwhile, Srinagar recorded a minimum temperature of minus 2.0 degrees Celsius on Friday night, lower than minus 1.3 degrees Celsius on the previous night, the MeT official said.
Qazigund -- the gateway town to the Valley -- in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 3.4 degrees Celsius, while the nearby Kokernag town registered a low of minus 4.5 degrees Celsius last night, he said. The mercury in north Kashmir's Kupwara town settled at a low of minus 0.8 degree Celsius. The ski resort of Gulmarg recorded a low of minus 7.0 degrees Celsius, while the tourist resort of Pahalgam in south Kashmir recorded a low of minus 4.4 degrees Celsius.
The minimum temperatures in Leh, in the frontier Ladakh region, and Drass were recorded at minus 9.2 degrees Celsius and minus 16.2 degrees Celsius, respectively. Kargil was the coldest recorded place in Jammu and Kashmir with a minimum temperature of minus 18.9 degrees Celsius. Kashmir is currently under the grip of 'Chillai-Kalan' -- the 40-day harshest winter period -- when the chances of snowfall are high and the temperature drops considerably.
'Chillai-Kalan' ends on January 31, but the cold wave continues even after that in Kashmir. The 40-day period is followed by a 20-day-long 'Chillai-Khurd' (small cold) and a 10-day-long 'Chillai-Bachha' (baby cold). On the other hand, the Union Territory of Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana experienced cold weather conditions at 8.6 degrees Celsius, three notches above normal, a MeT department official said.
In Punjab, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala braved cold weather conditions at 5.8, 8.2 and 9 degrees Celsius respectively, up to three notches above normal. Pathankot, Adampur, Halwara, Bathinda, Gurdaspur and Faridkot recorded lowest temperatures of 7.8, 6, 6.5, 5.9, 3.2 and 6.2 degrees Celsius respectively. In Haryana, Ambala witnessed cold weather conditions at 10 degrees Celsius, four notches above normal, while the minimum temperatures of Hisar and Karnal were 4.6 and 6 degrees Celsius respectively, up to two notches below normal. Bhiwani, Sirsa, Rohtak and Narnaul recorded their respective lows at 6.5, 6.2, 5.4 and 5 degrees Celsius respectively.