Abstract
In the backdrop of widely reported global warming, the present study focuses on the solid and liquid precipitation dynamics over the North-West Himalayan (NWH) region around the beginning of the twenty-first century. Using 40 years long, high resolution (0.25° × 0.25°) fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalyses of the global climate (ERA-5) data sets for precipitation and several atmospheric variables, we assess the changes in the annual cycle of solid and liquid precipitation characteristics in the last two decades (L20 years—2000–2019) as compared to the first two decades (F20 years—1980–1999). Validation of the ERA-5 data set has been carried out against the ground-based observations of rainfall and mean temperature prepared by India Meteorological Department (IMD). A good match of ERA-5 monthly rainfall with the IMD data set (correlation = 0.69) is noted over the NWH region over the last 40 years. The statistically robust K–S test suggests a remarkable variation in the distribution of most of the atmospheric variables across the NWH region at a 95% confidence level in the L20 years as compared to the F20 years. Further to this, a significant reduction in the precipitation during the pre-monsoon (MAM) season is noted across the NWH region (at 5% significance level), these observed changes are found to be well corroborated with the changes observed in the atmospheric circulation (weak winds) and enhanced temperature. For the JJAS rainfall, only parts of Uttarakhand witnessed significant enhancement of rainfall (specifically the Pithoragarh region), and notable increasing trend for both the mean and standard deviation of precipitation suggests an increase in extreme events in recent years. The peak snowfall month has experienced an early shift in the L20 years in comparison to the F20years (March–February) and an overall decrease in the snowfall amount has also been recorded in the annual cycle in association with the elevation of the region. Secular changes noted in the longitudinal and latitudinal cross-section of hydrometeors (snow and liquid water concentrations), specific humidity, and atmospheric circulation appear to be the plausible reasons for the noteworthy changes in the precipitation dynamics over the NWH region.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data sets used in this study may be obtained from https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu and India Meteorological Department.
References
Adhikari A, Liu C, Kulie MS (2018) Global distribution of snow precipitation features and their properties from 3 years of GPM observations. J Clim 31(10):3731–3754
Agrawal KK, Misra R, Yadav T, Agrawal GD, Jamuwa DK (2018) Experimental study to investigate the effect of water impregnation on thermal performance of earth air tunnel heat exchanger for summer cooling in hot and arid climate. Renewable Energy 120:255–265
Ajayamohan RS, Rao SA (2008) Indian Ocean dipole modulates the number of extreme rainfall events over India in a warming environment. J Meteorol Soc Jpn 86(1):245–252. https://doi.org/10.2151/jmsj.86.245
Ananthakrishnan R (1977) Some aspects of the monsoon circulation and monsoon rainfall. Pure Appl Geophys 115(5–6):1209–1249
Annamalai H, Slingo JM (2001) Active/break cycles: Diagnosis of the intraseasonal variability of the Asian Summer Monsoon. Clim Dyn 18(1–2):85–102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s003820100161
Archer DR, Fowler HJ (2004) Spatial and temporal variations in precipitation in the Upper Indus basin, global teleconnections and hydrological implications. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 8:47–61
Banerjee D, Singh C (2021) An appraisal of seasonal precipitation dynamics over the North-West Himalayan region under future warming scenarios. Int J Climatol. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7368
Basistha A, Arya DS, Goel NK (2009) Analysis of historical changes in rainfall in the Indian Himalayas. Int J Climatol A 29(4):555–572
Bharti V, Singh C (2015) Evaluation of error in TRMM 3B42V7 precipitation estimates over the Himalayan region. J Geophys Res 120(24):12458–12473. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD023779
Bharti V, Singh C, Ettema J, Turkington TAR (2016) Spatiotemporal characteristics of extreme rainfall events over the Northwest Himalaya using satellite data. Int J Climatol 36(12):3949–3962. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4605
Bhutiyani MR, Kale VS, Pawar NJ (2007) Long-term trends in maximum, minimum and mean annual air temperatures across the northwestern Himalaya during the 20th century. Clim Change 85:159–177
Bolch T, Kulkarni A, Kääb A, Huggel C, Paul F, Cogley JG, Frey H, Kargel JS, Fujita K, Scheel M, Bajracharya S, Stoffel M (2012) The state and fate of Himalayan glaciers. Science 336(6079):310–314. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1215828
Bollasina MA, Ming Y, Ramaswamy V (2011) Anthropogenic aerosols and the weakening of the south asian summer monsoon. Science 334(6055):502–505. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1204994
Bookhagen B, Burbank DW (2006) Topography, relief, and TRMM-derived rainfall variations along the Himalaya. Geophys Res Lett 33(8):L08405. https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL026037
Burbank D, Blythe A, Putkonen J et al (2003) Decoupling of erosion and precipitation in the Himalayas. Nature 426:652–655. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02187
Daloz AS, Mateling M, L’Ecuyer T, Kulie M, Wood NB, Durand M, Dimri AP (2020) How much snow falls in the world’s mountains? A first look at mountain snowfall estimates in A-train observations and reanalyses. Cryosphere 14(9):3195–3207
Gatebe CK, Varnai T, Poudyal R, Ichoku C, King MD (2012) Taking the pulse of pyrocumulus clouds. Atmos Environ 52:121–130
Ghosh S, Luniya V, Gupta A (2009) Trend analysis of Indian summer monsoon rainfall at different spatial scales. Atmos Sci Lett 10(4):285–290. https://doi.org/10.1002/asl.235
Ghosh S, Vittal H, Sharma T, Karmakar S, Kasiviswanathan KS, Dhanesh Y, Sudheer KP, Gunthe SS (2016) Indian summer monsoon rainfall: implications of contrasting trends in the spatial variability of means and extremes. PLoS ONE 11(7):1–14. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158670
Godbole RV (1977) The composite structure of the monsoon depression. Tellus 29(1):25–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2153-3490.1977.tb00706.x
Goswami BN, Venugopal V, Sengupta D, Madhusoodanan MS, Xavier PK (2006) Increasing trend of extreme rain events over India in a warming environment. Science 314(5804):1442–1445
Guhathakurta P, Rajeevan M (2008) Trends in the rainfall pattern over India. Int J Climatol. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1640
Hersbach H, Bell B, Berrisford P, Biavati G, Horányi , Muñoz Sabater J, Nicolas J, Peubey C, Radu R, Rozum I, Schepers D, Simmons A, Soci C, Dee D, Thépaut J-N (2019): ERA5 monthly averaged data on pressure levels from 1979 to present. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). Accessed 25 Jul 2020, https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.6860a573
Hunt KMR, Turner AG, Shaffrey LC (2018) The evolution, seasonality and impacts of western disturbances. Q J R Meteorol Soc 144(710):278–290. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3200
Hunt KMR, Turner AG, Shaffrey LC (2019) Falling trend of western disturbances in future climate simulations. J Clim 32(16):5037–5051. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0601.1
Immerzeel WW, van Beek LPH, Bierkens MFP (2010) Climate change will affect the Asian water towers. Science 328:1382–1385
Jaiswal RK, Lohani AK, Tiwari HL (2015) Statistical analysis for change detection and trend assessment in climatological parameters. Environ Process 2(4):729–749
Jin Q, Wang C (2017) A revival of Indian summer monsoon rainfall since 2002. Nat Clim Chang 7(8):587–594. https://doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE3348
Karypidou MC, Katragkou E, Sobolowski SP (2022) Precipitation over southern Africa: is there consensus among global climate models (GCMs), regional climate models (RCMs) and observational data? Geosci Model Dev 15(8):3387–3404
Kendall MG (1975) Rank correlation methods, 4th edn. Charles Griffin, London
Khain A, Prabha TV, Benmoshe N, Pandithurai G, Ovchinnikov M (2013) The mechanism of first raindrops formation in deep convective clouds. J Geophys Res Atmos 118:9123–9140. https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50641
Kothawale DR, Rupa Kumar K (2005) On the recent changes in surface temperature trends over India. Geophys Res Lett 32:L18714. https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL023528
Krishnan R, Sanjay J, Gnanaseelan C, Mujumdar M, Kulkarni A, Chakraborty S (2020) Assessment of climate change over the Indian region: A report of the ministry of earth sciences (MOES), government of India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2
Kulkarni A, Sabin TP, Chowdary JS, KoteswaraRao K, Priya P, Gandhi N, Bhaskar P, Buri VK, Sabade SS (2020) Precipitation changes in India. Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region: A Report of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India. Springer, Singapore, pp 47–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2_3
Kumar V, Jain SK (2010) Trends in seasonal and annual rainfall and rainy days in Kashmir Valley in the last century. Quatern Int 212(1):64–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2009.08.006
Kumar KK, Kumar KR, Pant GB (1997) Pre-monsoon maximum and minimum temperatures over India in relation to the summer monsoon rainfall. Int J Climatol 17(10):1115–1127
Kumar S, Hazra A, Goswami BN (2014) Role of interaction between dynamics, thermodynamics and cloud microphysics on summer monsoon precipitating clouds over the Myanmar Coast and the Western Ghats. Clim Dyn 43(3–4):911–924. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1909-3
Kumar N, Yadav BP, Gahlot S, Singh M (2015) Winter frequency of western disturbances and precipitation indices over Himachal Pradesh, India: 1977–2007. Atmosfera 28(1):63–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0187-6236(15)72160-0
Kundu SK, Singh C (2020) Rainfall pattern over the North-West Himalayan region: historical time period vs future warming scenarios. Theoret Appl Climatol 141(1):257–269
Langenbrunner B (2020) Hazards in the Himalayas. Nat Clim Chang 10:385. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0778-0
Lareau NP, Clements CB (2016) Environmental controls on pyrocumulus and pyrocumulonimbus initiation and development. Atmos Chem Phys 16(6):4005–4022
Li H, Haugen JE, Xu C (2017) Precipitation pattern in the western Himalayas revealed by four datasets. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci Discuss. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2017-296
Li T, Wang L, Chen R, Fu W, Xu B, Jiang P, Han Y (2021) Refining the empirical global pressure and temperature model with the ERA5 reanalysis and radiosonde data. J Geodesy 95(3):1–17
Madhura RK, Krishnan R, Revadekar JV, Mujumdar M, Goswami BN (2014) Changes in western disturbances over the Western Himalayas in a warming environment. Clim Dyn 44(3–4):1157–1168. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2166-9
Mahto SS, Mishra V (2019) Does ERA-5 outperform other reanalysis products for hydrologic applications in India? J Geophys Res: Atmos 124(16):9423–9441. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031155
Mann HB (1945) Nonparametric tests against trend. Econometrica 13(3):245–259
Mann ME, Bradley RS, Hughes MK (1999) Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: inferences, uncertainties, and limitations. Geophys Res Lett 26(6):759–762
Medina S, Houze RA, Kumar A, Niyogi D (2010) Summer monsoon convection in the Himalayan region: Terrain and land cover effects. Q J R Meteorol Soc 136(648):593–616. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.601
Navale A, Singh C (2020) Topographic sensitivity of WRF-simulated rainfall patterns over the North West Himalayan region. Atmos Res 242:105003
Navale A, Singh C, Budakoti S, Singh SK (2020) Evaluation of season long rainfall simulated by WRF over the NWH region: KF vs MSKF. Atmos Res 232:104682
Nogueira M (2020) Inter-comparison of ERA-5, ERA-interim and GPCP rainfall over the last 40 years: process-based analysis of systematic and random differences. J Hydrol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.124632
Norris J, Carvalho LMV, Jones C, Cannon F (2020) Warming and drying over the central Himalaya caused by an amplification of local mountain circulation. Npj Clim Atmos Sci 3(1):1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-019-0105-5
Pai DS, Sridhar L, Rajeevan M, Sreejith OP, Satbhai NS, Mukhopadhyay B (2014) Development of a new high spatial resolution (0.25° × 0.25°) long period (1901–2010) daily gridded rainfall data set over India and its comparison with existing data sets over the region. Mausam 65(1):1–18
Pathak A, Ghosh S, Kumar P et al (2017) Role of oceanic and terrestrial atmospheric moisture sources in intraseasonal variability of Indian summer monsoon rainfall. Sci Rep 7:12729. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13115-7
Pickett M (2019) Plume rise of a pyrocumulus cloud. Air Qual Clim Change 53(4):34–40
Platt CMR, Harshvardhan (1988) Temperature dependence of cirrus extinction: implications for climate feedback. J Geophy Res https://doi.org/10.1029/jd093id09p11051
Rajeevan M, Gadgil S, Bhate J (2010) Active and break spells of the Indian summer monsoon. J Earth Syst Sci 119(3):229–247
Rees HG, Collins DN (2006) Regional differences in response of flow in glacier-fed Himalayan Rivers to climatic warming. Hydrol Process 20(10):2157–2169
Sabeerali CT, Rao SA, Ajayamohan RS, Murtugudde R (2012) On the relationship between Indian summer monsoon withdrawal and Indo-Pacific SST anomalies before and after 1976/1977 climate shift. Clim Dyn 39(3):841–859. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1269-9
Sabin TP, Krishnan R, Vellore R, Priya P, Borgaonkar HP, Singh BB, Sagar A (2020) Climate change over the Himalayas. Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region: a Report of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India. Springer, Singapore, pp 207–222. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2_11
Sahana AS, Ghosh S, Ganguly A, Murtugudde R (2015) Shift in Indian summer monsoon onset during 1976/1977. Environ Res Lett 10(5):054006
Sanjay J, Revadekar JV, RamaRao MVS, Borgaonkar H, Sengupta S, Kothawale DR, Ratnam JV (2020) Temperature changes in India. Assessment of climate change over the Indian Region. Springer, Singapore, pp 21–45
Sen Roy S, Balling RC Jr (2004) Trends in extreme daily precipitation indices in India. Int J Climatol 24(4):457–466
Shafiq MU, Bhat MS, Rasool R, Ahmed P, Singh H, Hassan H (2016) Variability of precipitation regime in Ladakh region of India from 1901–2000. J Climatol Weather Forecast 4(2):40–43. https://doi.org/10.4172/2332-2594.1000165
Singh C (2013a) Changing pattern of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall: an objective analysis. Clim Dyn 41:195–203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1710-3
Singh C (2013b) Characteristics of monsoon breaks and intraseasonal oscillations over central India during the last half century. Atmos Res 128:120–128
Singh C, Bharti V (2019) Rainfall characteristics over the Northwest Himalayan Region. Remote Sens Northwest Himalayan Ecosyst. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2128-3_8
Singh RB, Mal S (2014) Trends and variability of monsoon and other rainfall seasons in Western Himalaya, India. Atmos Sci Lett 15(3):218–226. https://doi.org/10.1002/asl2.494
Singh P, Ramasastri KS, Kumar N (1995) Topographical influence on precipitation distribution in different ranges of western Himalayas. Nord Hydrol 26(4–5):259–284. https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.1995.0015
Singh C, Ganguly D, Dash SK (2017) Dust load and rainfall characteristics and their relationship over the South Asian monsoon region under various warming scenarios. J Geophys Res 122(15):7896–7921. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JD027451
Singh C, Ganguly D, Sharma P, Mishra S (2019) Climate response of the south Asian monsoon system to West Asia, Tibetan Plateau and local dust emissions. Clim Dyn. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-019-4925-8
Srivastava AK, Rajeevan M, Kshirsagar SR (2009) Development of a high resolution daily gridded temperature data set (1969–2005) for the Indian region. Atmos Sci Lett 10(4):249–254
Stephens GL (1980) Radiative transfer on a linear lattice: application to anisotropic ice crystal clouds. J Atmos Sci 37(9):2095–2104
Suhas E, Goswami BN (2008) Regime shift in Indian summer monsoon climatological intraseasonal oscillations. Geophys Res Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035511
Tewari VP, Verma RK, von Gadow K (2017) Climate change effects in the Western Himalayan ecosystems of India: evidence and strategies. For Ecosyst 4:13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40663-017-0100-4
Troll C (1973) Arctic and alpine research high mountain belts between the polar caps and the equator: their definition and lower limit high mountain belts between the polar caps and the equator: their definition and lower limit. Arct Alp Res 5(3):19–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00040851.1973.12003713
Wallace JM, Hobbs PV (2006) Atmospheric science: an introductory survey, vol 92. Elsevier
Acknowledgements
Present work is a part of ISRO project. Authors are thankful to Group Head, MASD, Dean Academics, and Director IIRS for their support. Surface and 3-D atmospheric variables from ERA -5 are used in the present study. We thank the associated science team and staff (Hersbach et al. 2019) for developing the data set and making it available for research free of cost. ERA -5 data sets may be obtained from https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu. We thank India Meteorological Department for providing gridded data sets for rainfall and temperature. Our sincere thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions, which have greatly helped us to bring this manuscript in the present form.
Funding
The authors have not recieved any funding.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declared no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Banerjee, D., Singh, C. On the solid and liquid precipitation characteristics over the North-West Himalayan region around the turn of the century. Clim Dyn 60, 959–980 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06325-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06325-x