Srinagar, Dec 27 (IANS): Kashmir woke up to a freezing Friday as the temperature plummeted to the lowest degrees in this season.

Srinagar recorded the coldest night of the season with temperature dropping down to minus 5.6 degrees.

The hill resort of Gulmarg was at minus 9.6 degrees while Pahalgam recorded a night temperature of minus 12 degrees.

The Meteorological Department has forecast similar weather conditions to prevail over the next one week.

Director Met Department, Kashmir Sonam Lotus told IANS: "It is 'chillai kalan', hence we are seeing the drop in the temperature below zero degrees. It is going to be like this for the next week."

Due to the harsh weather conditions people are facing a lot of problems.

The water taps have frozen in many places, causing a lot of inconvenience to the people, who mostly start their activity late in the morning.

Some portions of the Dal Lake were also frozen due to the cold wave, which was a delight for the tourists, but a cause of great inconvenience to the locals.

The scheduled and unscheduled power cuts make have things worse for the people.

"We are facing more than 10 hours of power cut daily in this bitter winter. This makes life very difficult for us, said Abdullah Rahim, a resident from Batmaloo, Srinagar.

The harsh spell of winter in Kashmir lasts for 40 days, beginning from December 20, which is known as 'chillai kalan' locally.