Srinagar, Dec. 12 -- Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed prolonged dry weather conditions mostly for the past 40 days causing the rivers to dry up and prompting dozens of incidents of forest fires, weather and forest experts said. They said that the Union territory has been reeling under a prolonged dry spell since the beginning of November with 85% deficit in rain or snowfall across the region. Officials and weather experts said that J&K witnessed just 6 mm of average rainfall against a normal precipitation of 43 mm from November 1 to December 9. Kashmir and Jammu divisions separately received rainfall of 8 mm (deficit of 82.1%) and 6.6 mm (deficit of 82.6%) against their respective normals of 44.7 mm and 38 mm, respectively. Director meteorological centre in Srinagar, J&K, Mukhtar Ahmad, said that the deficit from the beginning of November was 85% while it was around 50% if the data from the beginning of October was included. "The water level of Jhelum River at Sangam has slipped to -0.59 ft, dropping below the zero-gauge level. This does not yet represent the lowest level ever observed, however, it remains one of the lowest readings recorded for the river in recent years," said independent weather spotter, Faizan Arif. "The extended dry conditions have also significantly increased the risk of forest fires across many vulnerable zones of J&k," he said. Kashmir has been witnessing a string of forest fires across the region with north Kashmir most affected region. In south Kashmir's Anantnag, a forest guard Gull Mohammad Shah, 54, part of a firefighting team in the Hengipora Range, slipped nearly 50 metres down a steep slope while moving away from advancing flames. In Kupwara, there have been continuous forest fires since the second half of November. "We have witnessed some nine- ten incidents of forest fires since November 18. The serious ones were in Rajwara, Magam and Mawra Nowgam," said divisional forest officer of Langate Kupwara, Aijaz Pajwari. The dry weather is expected to continue till December 20. "In view of absence of any strong Western Disturbance the weather will prevail in Western Himalayan regions of J&K, Ladakh and Himachal," said director MeT of Ladakh, Sonam Lotus....