NEW DELHI: Global warming appears to have taken a toll on the climate patterns in Kashmir valley which has been experiencing a decline in snowfall and rise in temperature, weather scientists have found.
Analysing the snow accumulation and ablation patterns in Pir Panjal and Shamshawari regions of the valley during the winters of 2004-05 to 2006-07, scientists have shown that the seasonal snow cover has reduced while the maximum temperature was increasing steadily.
"This decreasing trend in areal extent of snow cover, rise in maximum temperature and decreasing trend in total snowfall may be the indicators of global warming or climate change," senior scientist H S Negi of DRDO's Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment, said reporting his findings in the Journal of Earth System Sciences.
The total snowfall in the winter of 2004-05 was 1,082 centimetres across the valley that declined to 968 centimetres in 2005-06 and further to 961 centimetres in 2006-07, Negi and his colleagues found.
February, the second month of maximum snowfall, showed rapid fluctuation with 585 centimetres in 2004-05 compared to 207 centimetres in 2005-06 and 221 centimetres in 2006-07.
