Every morning, Ishfaaq Ahmad Malik, a ski teacher in Indian-controlled Kashmir, opens his bed room window and, like many others within the area, wonders: Where is the snow?

“This has never happened before in January. Not in my lifetime,” mentioned Mr. Malik, 65. “Definitely not in Gulmarg.”

Each winter, Gulmarg, one in every of Asia’s largest and highest ski resort cities, attracts 1000’s of skiers, many from as far-off as Europe and the Americas, drawn by excellent powder, low-cost inns and breathtaking views of the Himalayas.

At 8,500 ft, this scrappy ski city’s miles of slopes are often blanketed by snow from December to March and filled with snowboarders and skiers.

But this yr, there is no such thing as a snow.

Across Kashmir and different elements of the Himalayas in northern India, a protracted dry spell is spreading worry amongst farmers, and threatening tourism and snowboarding industries that generate thousands and thousands of {dollars} annually.

Like a lot of South Asia, Kashmir is experiencing excessive climate patterns, together with report summer time warmth waves that result in speedy melting of glaciers which are a serious water supply for the area’s eight million individuals.

Today, even on the 13,800-foot summit of Gulmarg, there are huge tracts of land that ought to be frosty white however are as an alternative brown and inexperienced. Parking heaps are empty, and inns are reporting cancellations.

Javed Rehman, a tourism official in Kashmir, mentioned that no snow basically means no tourism this time of yr. It is a stark distinction to 2023, when the resort prolonged the ski season by 15 days, to April 15, due to an inflow of individuals, he mentioned.

“During winters, Gulmarg, for most tourists, is the most important destination in their itinerary, with other places as supplementary additions,” he mentioned.

There was a quick snowfall within the increased reaches of the realm late final month, nevertheless it was not almost sufficient. Kashmir reported a 79 % precipitation deficit by way of December.

Indian meteorologists mentioned the bizarre climate was linked to world warming and to El Niño, the sporadic local weather phenomenon that may create heat, dry situations within the Indian subcontinent and different elements of Asia.

Thousands of individuals rely upon a snowy Gulmarg for his or her livelihoods. Last yr, over 1,000,000 vacationers rode a cable automobile from the bowl-shaped valley to Gulmarg’s peak.

Those guests are usually served by sled pullers, tea sellers who stand in clumps and pour out steaming cups for skiers, and different roadside distributors. But now, non-public ski rental outlets are closed, and ski instructors are out of labor.

“For the whole year, our only expectation is a good two months of work,” mentioned Imtiaz Khan, a ski teacher from the close by city of Tangmarg in northern Kashmir.

Traditionally, winter in Kashmir is split into three elements. The harshest 40-day interval, from December to late January — regionally referred to as “chilla-i-kalan” — brings chilly that freezes pipes and our bodies of water. Cricket lovers play the game on the surface of frozen Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest metropolis.

The area has recorded warmer-than-usual temperatures for a few month, generally 10 levels Fahrenheit above the norm. Daytime temperatures often hover round 41 levels Fahrenheit through the harsh winter interval, with freezing temperatures at night time.

Mohammad Asadullah Hajam, a lodge supervisor in Gulmarg, mentioned each hotelier was dealing with an analogous problem, with extra vacationers canceling their bookings with each passing day.

“About 50 percent of cancellations are being done by foreign tourists,” he mentioned. “That is where most of our revenue comes from.”