Rains bring much needed relief from intense heat in Kashmir

Hindustan Times

5 days ago

Torrential rains drenched Kashmir valley on Monday bringing some momentary relief in the hot weather conditions prevailing in the Himalayan region for the past more than a month. People in Srinagar after rainfall lashed Srinagar on Monday. (Waseem Andrabi/HT)
The rains started in the afternoon in parts of Pahalgam in South Kashmir, Srinagar in Central Kashmir and Handwara in North Kashmir. However, by late evening heavy rains lashed most parts of the valley, including northern Baramulla district and majority of the city.
'The rains have brought a welcome relief from the intense hot weather in Kashmir. At many places people came out to drench in the rains even though the intensity of the rains was so severe,' said Arif Ahmad, a resident of Srinagar.
There were hailstorms and gusty winds in various parts of the city. 'Strong winds uprooted a tree between Batwara and Pandrethan, which crashed onto an e-rickshaw causing damage while the road continues to remain blocked,' said Faizan Arif, a weather spotter. Many low lying areas of Srinagar were inundated with rain water.
'On Nallamar road and Khankah Moula, the storm water is overflowing the roads and has entered into shops causing damage to the goods and merchandise,' said a resident of Old City.
Less snow, precipitation: Why Kashmir is sizzling in 2025
Kashmir is experiencing multiple bouts of heatwave this summer with temperatures breaking records of the past 70 years, prompting the experts to delve into the reasons for such unusually hot weather.
The heatwave has not only deteriorated the quality of life but also affected vegetable crops and fruit orchards besides drying up water bodies, including river Jhelum, due to extended dry weather conditions.
The experts say that the heatwave is not just because of the immediate dry weather this summer but also because of less precipitation right from the beginning of winter. 'We had very little snowfall this winter with no major snow cover over the mountains. In fact the Amarnath Yatris this year are also surprised to find negligible snow on the tracks leading up to cave shrine at a height of 3,880 metres deep in the Himalayas,' said Farooq Ahmad Bhat, senior meteorologist at IMD's Srinagar centre.
He said that a heavy snow cover would help immediate rains in summer after just a few days of hot weather.
'In normal days, the hot weather would cause evaporation leading to rains after a few days. But this year, the very little snowfall we had has already melted in March and there is nothing to melt over mountains to go into rivers for evaporation and cause rains. Hence, more the dry weather, there is more increase in temperatures,' he said.
Kashmir valley witnessed heatwaves this summer right from May- first between May 18 to 27 and then from June 9 onwards - breaking decades old temperature records and severely affecting the life of the people not used to such high temperatures.
Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar on Saturday recorded the hottest day in 72 years at 37.4°C , the third highest maximum temperature in history in the city. 'The second highest temperature in Srinagar has been 37.7°C which was recorded on 5 July 1953 while the all -time highest temperature of 38.3°C over Srinagar had been observed on July 10, 1946,' said MeT director Mukhtar Ahmad.
In Pahalgam tourist resort, the all times highest temperature of 31.6°C was recorded on Saturday, up from previous highest of 31.5°C on July 21 last year.
Bhat said that Kashmir valley this year was hotter than the Jammu division which used to sizzle in normal circumstances. 'The Jammu division has been receiving monsoon rains regularly, while the Kashmir division has been hotter due to absence of moisture currents which only reach Reasi, Katra and Pir Panjal (mountain) region,' he said.
Not only this month so far, the Jammu and Kashmir summer capital Srinagar has also recorded the hottest June month since 1978, and second hottest since 1892, the MeT has said. The average maximum mean temperature for the month of June 2025 stood at 31°C just below 32.9°C which was recorded in June 1978.
Director MeT Mukhtar Ahmad said that the shifting global weather patterns like increase in temperatures due to climate change are also contributing factors. 'Our main sources of precipitation are western disturbances rather than monsoon rains. This year western disturbances didn't bring much snowfall while monsoon rains, already very less in Kashmir, are also shying away,' he said.
Western disturbances are moisture laden winds from the Mediterranean which account for three-forth of the Valley's precipitation.
He said that another factor was hot nights which would aggravate the day temperatures. 'There has been this trend of cloud cover during nights which would keep nights hot and humid and then the day temperatures would break further records,' he said.
He, however, hopes for some relief as monsoon brought some rains on Monday.
'Currently there are some showers in Pahalgam and Kokernag in south Kashmir, Srinagar's Nishat areas and northern Handwara area but these are localised. Monsoons are not like western disturbances which cover the whole region,' he said.