By IRNA,
Srinagar, India : The Kashmir valley was sufferring a massive power breakdown, disrupting normal life over the weekend with mercury slipping further down and temperatures three degrees below normal rate.
Snowfall however began Sunday morning reviving hopes of some some respite from the freezing cold and prolonged dry spell.
Water pipes, streams, ponds and parts of the Dal Lake froze during the night due to severe chill.
According to a spokesman of the meteorological department, Srinagar recorded a minimum temperature of minus 4.8 degrees Celsius against Saturday’s minus 4.6 degrees, making it the second coldest night so far of the season which had witnessed a minus 4.9 on Christmas.
The world famous ski resort of Gulmarg was the coldest with minimum minus seven degrees followed by Pahalgam in south Kashmir at minus 6.9 degrees.
The Ladakh region also remained under the grip of severe cold with mercury recorded between minus 19 degrees to minus 27 degrees.
Boatmen found it difficult to ferry passengers in the Dal lake in mornings due to the frozen banks of the water body.
Mercury continued to show a downward trend in the state, with Leh in Ladakh region recording a minimum of minus 18.6 degree C, the meteorological office said.
Earlier the Kashmir valley was plunged into darkness on Friday night with weather-induced faults in transmission lines from the northern grid causing a massive power breakdown persisting through Sunday.
Even as power supply was partially restored after long hours, authorities here said that the breakdown had affected many northern states.
The chief engineer for the PDD, Mushtaq Ahmad, said that due to intense ‘fog flash over’, feeding lines from the northern grid tripped at around 03:02 am mid night and resulted into problems in disc isolators, resulting in power failure.
He said around 20 MW electricity was arranged from the local Uri power project to provide uninterrupted power supply to essential services including hospitals.
“We have restored power supply to some areas,” he said. “But if intense fog remains, the problem can occur again.”
The chief engineer explained that the flash-over takes places in winter as the presence of fog between the high voltage power lines leads to exchange of current.