Kashmir's beautiful Dal Lake freezes, Srinagar records coldest night in 30 years

Winter in Srinagar has been at its peak this year. On Thursday night, a major portion of Kashmir's renowned Dal Lake froze because of record low temperatures, and Srinagar recorded the coldest night in three decades at minus 8.4 degree Celsius. According to the officials in the weather department, the city hasn’t experienced such low temperatures since 1991, when the mercury had dipped to minus 11.8 degree Celsius.

The officials further informed that the city’s lowest ever temperature recorded is minus 14.4 degrees Celsius in 1893. Besides Srinagar, the rest of Kashmir Valley is too under the grip of intense cold. On Wednesday, the condition got so bad at the Srinagar airport that an IndiGo flight, with 231 passengers on board, got stuck in snow and could take off. The flight got badly stuck in a thick layer of snow on the taxi-way. The plane was scheduled to take off from Srinagar to Delhi.
Tourists favourite destination, Gulmarg recorded a minimum temperature of minus 7 degrees Celsius on Thursday while Pahalgam shivered at minus 11.1 degree Celsius. Qazigund, in Anantnag district, recorded a minimum of 10 degrees Celsius and Kupwara in north Kashmir settled at minus 6.7 degrees Celsius. Kokernag in south Kashmir was at minus 10.3 degrees Celsius.

As of now, Kashmir is going through Chillai-Kalan, a 40-day bone-chilling winter period. This is the time when the valley gets wrapped by harsh winters and the temperature drops considerably. This also leads to freezing of water bodies in the region.
In fact, water supply lines also freeze during this time in most parts of the valley, making life difficult for residents.