Valley under deep freeze, Kargil records season's lowest

 Witnessing one of the harshest winter in decades, the Kashmir Valley experienced an extremely chilly night with a drastic fall in the night temperature even as the remote town of Kargil recorded the lowest temperature of the season at minus 25 degrees.

The minimim temperature in Kargil town of Ladakh region slipped by nearly five degrees from yesterday to settle at minus 25.0 degrees Celsius, a MeT official said.

This is the lowest temperature of the season anywhere in the Kashmir division beating the previous lowest of minus 23 degrees Celsius recorded in Kargil last week.

The adjoining Leh town, also in Ladakh region, recorded its season's lowest temperature with mercury there plunging to minus 23.4 degrees Celsius, a drop of 4.8 degrees from last night, the official said.

In Kashmir valley, the minimum temperature across the region fell several degrees below freezing point even as Chillai Kalan, 40-days of harsh winter, came to end today.
The Chillai Kalan, which began on December 21 last year, is considered one of the harshest periods of the winter in Kashmir when sometimes even the day time temperature plunges below the freezing point here.

The minimum temperature in the summer capital here was recorded at minus 5.0 degrees Celsius, the official said.

South Kashmir's tourist resort of Pahalgam remained the coldest place in the valley as minimum temperature there fell to minus 14.2 degrees Celsius, a drop of one degree from yesterday.

In the famous Gulmarg skiing resort, in north Kashmir, the minimum temperature recorded a drop of more than a degree to settle at minus 12.5 degrees Celsius, the official said.
Qazigund town, which acts as the gateway to Kashmir valley, recorded a freezing night with minimum temperature dropping to minus 10.0 degrees Celsius.

Kupwara frontier town in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 6.3 degrees Celsius, the official said.