By IANS
Srinagar : With temperatures dipping to nearly five degrees below the freezing point, Kashmir witnessed its coldest day of this season Wednesday.
“The night temperature today fell to minus 4.8 degrees, making Wednesday the coldest day of the season so far,” said N.P. Bhatnagar, director of the regional meteorological office.
Kashmir has been witnessing a dry spell for the last two months, though the coldest part of the winter is yet to start. Clear night skies have led to plunging temperatures. Extreme dryness, dust and bitter cold have resulted in widespread influenza and other respiratory diseases in the chill-gripped valley.
However Bhatnagar predicted an end to the dry spell soon.
“A small western disturbance is developing and hopefully there could be some snow and rainfall in Kashmir on Thursday,” he said.
“However, nothing can yet be said about it with certainty. As for the next 24 hours (ending Wednesday evening) our forecast is that the weather is going to stay dry and foggy,” the weatherman said.
For the last three days many flights to and from Srinagar have been cancelled because of the heavy fog here.
On Tuesday only one flight, the Srinagar-Jeddah direct flight carrying the Haj pilgrims, operated from here.