Long‐term (2001–2020) trend analysis of temperature and rainfall and drought characteristics by in situ measurements at a tropical semi‐arid station from southern peninsular India

Abstract

With the effects of climate change prevailing worldwide, it is essential to understand the long-term rainfall and temperature trends at regional scales to plan for adaptation strategies. Investigating the temporal dynamics of meteorological variables in climate-induced changes, particularly in rain-fed agriculture countries such as India, is needful. The present study focused on the temporal variation of rainfall and temperature trends to analyse the drought characteristics over the past 20 years (2001-2020) using ground-based Automatic Weather Station (AWS) data at a semi-arid station Anantapur in southern peninsular India. The seasonal maximum mean temperature (T mean ) was observed in summer (32.20 ± 1.36 C), followed by the monsoon (29.08 ± 1.02 C), postmonsoon (26.45 ± 2.44 C), and winter (25.45 ± 1.01 C) during the study period. The Mann-Kendall trend test result showed the decreasing trend in seasonal mean temperature during the drying period (winter [−0.069 CÁyear −1 ] and summer [−0.081 CÁyear −1 ]) and increasing trend in the wetting period (monsoon [0.012 CÁyear −1 ] and postmonsoon [0.034 CÁyear −1 ]). On the other hand, the seasonal rainfall decreases in the postmonsoon (−2.276 mmÁyear −1 ) while increasing in winter (0.5 mmÁyear −1 ), summer (2.137 mmÁyear −1 ), and monsoon (6.901 mmÁyear −1 ) seasons. The annual trends of minimum, maximum, and mean monthly temperatures decrease at the rate of −0.121, −0.123, and −0.022 CÁyear −1 , respectively, while the rainfall increases at the rate of 8.979 mmÁyear −1 . Furthermore, the temporal evolution of meteorological drought characteristics was estimated with the help of the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) on multiple timescales ranging from 1 to 24 months on a monthly basis during the study period. The 24-month SPI values showed that 1 "severely dry" and the 29 "moderately dry" long-term

Climate Dynamics over Kerala, India: Insight from a Century-long Temperature and Rainfall Data Analysis

“…Climate data, especially rainfall and temperature, could serve as the basis for climate hazard mapping and risk assessment of various regions, sectors, and communities to ensure climate-proof development [22]. Numerous studies [23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31] have been conducted to analyze temperature and rainfall trends in various regions worldwide. A few studies also analyzed rainfall and temperature trends in Kerala using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test and parametric regression test.…”