Abstract
Temperature as a central element of weather and climate exerts a strong influence on environment at every spatial and temporal scale. Long-term patterns and trends indicate the direction in which temperature regime has changed in the past and are likely to shape up in the future. Of equal significance is the likelihood of extreme temperature events and their impacts. Climate researchers in the past 20 years have revealed occurrence of significantly longer heat waves in many regions. Large geographical extent and climatic variations produces contrasting patterns of change in temperature extremes in India. A highly diverse landscape of Himalayas has experienced warming in recent decades with significant mean annual and winter warming. Consequently, temperature extremes in such regions are likely to impact the regional development and economy. This paper explores long-term trends, variations, direction and degree of change in temperature extremes over Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. The analysis reveals that warming of the study area has taken place especially during the winter season. The fact which attracts attention is the maximum rate of change over extreme climatic zones especially in the northern Himachal Pradesh and southwestern Punjab Plains. These observed changes may have far-fetching ramification on general climatic regime, environment and human-economic activities.
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Sharma, M.R., Chandel, V.B.S., Brar, K.K. (2022). Markers of Climate Change: Analysing Extreme Temperature Indices Over the Himalayan Mountains and Adjoining Punjab Plains. In: Schickhoff, U., Singh, R., Mal, S. (eds) Mountain Landscapes in Transition . Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70238-0_2
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