Climatic variability and its characterisation over Punjab, India

Abstract

The climate data (maximum temperature, minimum temperature and rainfall) of forty year (1974-2013) was analysed for kharif (May to October) and rabi (November to April) seasons in Punjab, India. The non-parametric Mann-Kendall and Sen’s methods were used to determine trend (positive or negative) in climate data over a period of 40 years. A decrease in rainfall and increase in temperature from northeast to south-west Punjab during both the kharif and rabi seasons was observed. No significant temporal variation was observed in maximum temperature and rainfall during both the seasons, but a significant increase in minimum temperature over the years was observed in different zones of Punjab. On an average, minimum temperature is increasing at 0.05oC per year during both the seasons.

Keywords

• Climatic variability
• GIS,
• Mann-Kendall test
• Punjab