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Climatology and trends of summer high temperature days in India during 1969–2013

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Abstract

Based on the daily maximum air temperature data from 176 stations in India from 1969 to 2013, the climatological distribution of the number of days with high temperature (HT) defined as days with maximum temperature higher than 37°C during summer season (March–June) are studied. With a focus on the regional variability and long-term trends, the impacts of HT days are examined by dividing the country into six geographical regions (North, West, North-central, East, South-central and South). Although the long-term (1969–2013) climatological numbers of HT days display well-defined spatial patterns, there is clear change in climatological mean and coefficient of variation of HT days in a recent period (1991–2013). The long period trends indicate increase in summer HT days by 3%, 5%, and 18% in north, west, and south regions, respectively and decrease by 4% and 9% in north-central and east regions respectively. However, spatial variations in HT days exist across different regions in the country. The data analysis shows that 2010 was the warmest summer year and 2013 was the coolest summer year in India. Comparison of spatial distributions of trends in HT days for 1969–1990 and 1991–2013 periods reveal that there is an abrupt increase in the number of HT days over north, west and north-central regions of India probably from mid 1990s. A steep increase in summer HT days in highly populated cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Jaipur, and Visakhapatnam is noticed during the recent period of 1991–2013. The summer HT days over southern India indicate significant positive correlation with Nino 3.4 index for three months’ running mean (December–January–February, January–March, February–April, March–May and April–June).

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Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to Dr L S Rathore, Director General of Meteorology for the encouragement and support. They are also thankful to the unknown reviewers for the constructive suggestions that helped to improve the manuscript.

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  1. India Meteorological Department, Shivajinagar, Pune, 411 005, India.

    A K JASWAL & P C S RAO

  2. India Meteorological Department, Lodi Road, New Delhi, 110 003, India.

    VIRENDRA SINGH

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JASWAL, A.K., RAO, P.C.S. & SINGH, V. Climatology and trends of summer high temperature days in India during 1969–2013. J Earth Syst Sci 124, 1–15 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-014-0535-8

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