Amarnath Yatra is an annual pilgrimage travel ritual of Hindus that takes place every first week of July and lasts for about 45 days. The ending point for the pilgrimage is the holy Amarnath cave that stands on a height of 12800 ft. This year, the travel has been made open for public starting from July 1 to August 15.
This is also the same time when Monsoon reaches the region of Jammu and Kashmir. During the yatra on and off inclement weather conditions prevail over the site. Rain and thundershowers are sometimes followed by some incidents of snow.
The site sees quite harsh weather even in the Summers with temperatures reaching sub-zero during the time of the yatra. There are two base camps to the Amarnath shrine- one is Pahalgam and the other is Baltar. Thereafter, the journey is taken on foot. A minimum medical fitness is mandatory to take the on-foot journey as over- 3500 ft journey remains to be covered on-foot after the base.
This time the Monsoon is yet to make its onset over the region but is likely in the next few days. The absence of any weather system will ensure pleasant weather conditions over the area in daytime as the Sun shines. The first few days are going to quite uneventful. However, the next Western Disturbance is just around the corner on July 6. Although this is not a very strong system, but it will lead to inclement weather conditions over the region resulting in drop in temperatures.
Despite the massive arrangements made and several background checks extreme weather, natural disasters and road accidents are frequent. None of this, however, deters the faithful followers of Lord Shiva from taking this perilous journey every year with joy.
Image Credits- hindustantimes.com
Any information taken from here should be attributed to Skymet Weather.
