How La Niña is affecting weather patterns in Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing a La Niña effect with erratic weather patterns becoming a new normal.

La Niña is a complex weather pattern that impacts the global climate and disrupts normal weather patterns, which can lead to intense storms in some places and droughts in others. It affects winter temperature and precipitation regimes. It has been prevailing since 2020 and is expected to continue till February 2023. Conditions will be no different this winter too. 

Weather experts say that Kashmir has been facing a peculiar weather system for the last four years. “There have snowfalls even in June in the upper reaches of Sonamarg. So having snowfall in the upper reaches in April or May is rare but not unusual. Given the weather patterns in the last four years, we are psychologically feeling snowfall in spring something that has not happened before. But that is not true,” said Faizan Arif, Founder of the popular weather channel, ‘Kashmir Weather’.

Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing a rapid climate change. The Union Territory is warming at a higher rate than the world average. The average temperature of Jammu and Kashmir has increased by 1.2-degree centigrade in the last 100 years. During the same period, the average temperature of the earth increased by 0.8 to 0.9-degree centigrade.

Falling in the Himalayan region, Jammu and Kashmir has a geographic area of 101387 square kilometers. It excludes the 120849 square kilometer area which is under the occupation of Pakistan and China.   Around 20230 square kilometers, which comprise 19.95 percent of the total geographical area of Jammu and Kashmir, is under forest cover. The higher regions are covered by Pir Panjal, Karakoram, and the inner Himalayan ranges of mountains. Climate change has affected every aspect of life.

“We are witnessing a climate change. Sometimes there are heavy spells of rain and sometimes weather remains dry. Sometimes we see abrupt rainfall. It is all because of the climate change that we are experiencing in Kashmir,” said Faizan.

Experts said Jammu and Kashmir is not only witnessing global warming but global cooling as well.

“We need to stop tampering with the fragile ecosystem. We need to take the environment seriously.  It is an environmental emergency. We see people getting killed by thunderstorms. The government, environmentalists, scientists, experts, and the common man need to put their heads together to find a solution Environment should be a priority for all policymakers,” said Nadeem Qadri, J&K consultant, Earth Day Network (EDN).