Jammu/Srinagar Feb 17 (IANS): Bright sunshine greeted people in Jammu and Srinagar as Wednesday's maximum temperature in the two cities was forecast to hover around 20 and 10 degrees Celsius respectively.

"The lowest night temperature was 7.5 degrees Celsius while the day's maximum temperature is expected to remain around 20 degrees Celsius in Jammu city today (Wednesday)," an official of the Met department said.

The minimum temperature in Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine base camp town of Katra was 9.2 degrees Celsius on Wednesday while in other towns of the Jammu region, Batote recorded a minimum of 4.3 degrees Celsius, Bannihal and Bhaderwah recorded one degree Celsius and Udhampur recorded 3.5 degrees Celsius, the official said.

"Srinagar recorded minus 0.9 degrees Celsius, Pahalgam minus 4.3 degrees Celsius, Gulmarg minus 5.2 while Leh and Kargil towns of Ladakh region recorded minimum temperatures of minus 11.3 and minus 9.6 degrees Celsius respectively," he said.

Jammu and Kashmir has received scanty of snowfall during the winter season this year, which is about to end.

The weather office does not have any good news for the people of the state as the weather is expected to remain dry during the next 15 days.

Winter without a good snowfall spells disaster for various water reservoirs of the state situated in the higher reaches.

These perennial water reservoirs get replenished by heavy snowfall during the winter months to sustain rivers, lakes, streams and springs in the state during the summer months.

"In fact, there has been very little snow gathering on the glaciers of Kashmir this year," said Mansha Nisar, who teaches environmental science in Srinagar.

"The glaciers in Kashmir are already withdrawing due to human interference and environmental degradation."

"Scanty snowfall means the process of withdrawing and vanishing of glaciers will hasten," Nisar said.