The severe heatwave at the onset of this summer has not just taken Delhi-NCR in its grip, but some of the coldest hill stations too are reeling under heat conditions. The winter capital Jammu on Wednesday recorded its hottest day of the season so far, as the mercury touched 40 degrees Celsius, officials said.
An official of the Meteorological department said the mercury continued its upward trend in Jammu where the maximum temperature settled at 40 degrees Celsius, which is 4.4 notches above the normal for this part of the season.
This was the first time this season, that the day temperature touched the 40 degrees Celsius mark in Jammu which is reeling under rising temperature since March, owing to a prolonged dry spell.
The minimum temperature in the city, however, was near normal at 21.7 degrees Celsius, the official said.
Katra, the base camp for the pilgrims visiting the Vaishno Devi shrine, recorded a high of 37.1 degrees Celsius and a low of 21.7 degrees Celsius, the official said.
The summer capital Srinagar, on the other hand, witnessed pleasant weather with a day temperature of 28.1 degrees Celsius and a night temperature of 10.4 degrees Celsius.
Power cuts in Jammu
Amid the rising temperatures, Jammu witnessed massive protests over unscheduled power cuts and acute shortage of drinking water over the past two weeks.
In order to meet the increasing electricity demand in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Government has allocated 207 MW of additional power to the Union Territory, Principal Secretary to Power Development Department, Nitishwar Kumar said.
Kumar, who is also principal secretary to the Lt Governor, said the order issued by the Union Ministry of Power will substantially increase the availability of power in J&K.
The Union Government has allocated additional power from the unallocated quota of Central Generating Stations of the Northern Region Pool to Jammu and Kashmir.
(With inputs from PTI)
Also Read | Odisha declares five day school holiday due to heatwave
Latest India News
