Chill in Kashmir, weather likely to improve this week

It was a cold, cloudy morning in Srinagar with a shallow fog enveloping most parts of Kashmir on Thursday.

The local weather office said that a western disturbance is likely to approach the state on Thursday with chances of light rains which will bring relief from foggy weather and cold conditions.

"We are expecting light rain today evening and improvement in weather from Saturday morning onwards," an official of local meteorological office told IANS here.

Heavy fog and intense cold affected normal life in Jammu and Kashmir for the past three days.

"It will be a partly cloudy day in Srinagar city today and the maximum temperature is likely to hover around 12 degrees Celsius," the official said.

"The overnight minimum temperature in Srinagar was 5.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday, which is two degrees below normal," he said.

Kargil town in the Ladakh region was the coldest in the state with minimum temperature settling at minus 5.6 degrees Celsius. Leh town of the same region remained cold at minus 3 degrees Celsius.

The minimum temperatures in tourist resorts of Gulmarg and Pahalgam on Thursday were minus 2.4 and 5.5 degrees respectively.

"The minimum temperature in Jammu city was 12.6 degrees Celsius Thursday," the official said.