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Drought intensity and frequency analysis using SPI for Tamil Nadu, India


Affiliations
1 Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
 

To assess the drought hazard for different agro-climatic zones of Tamil Nadu (TN), India, the present study deals with temporal trend and spatial pattern of drought over the period 1981–2019. Standardized Pre­cipitation Index (SPI) has been used to detail the geographical variations of drought intensity, duration and frequency at multiple time steps. The spatial rainfall variability of the Southwest monsoon (SWM) ranged from 69.3 mm (Tuticorin) to 772.8 mm (the Nilgiris), and that for the Northeast monsoon (NEM) ranged from 277.8 mm (Krishnagiri) to 825.9 mm (Nagapattinam), while annual rainfall variability ranged from 558.8 mm (Tuticorin) to 1466.8 mm (the Nilgiris) for TN. Irrespective of all the regions, the frequency of moderate drought occurrence was higher compared to other drought nomenclature. The NEM season recorded on par and higher number of drought occurrences with respect to SWM season. Out of 39 years, TN experienced severely dry to extremely dry climate during 2002. The result underlines the potential of SPI in drought identification and also revealed that the rainfall is strongly linked to drought policies and measures imple­mented for the state.

Keywords

Northeast monsoon, rainfall, southwest monsoon, spatial variability, standardized precipitation index
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  • Drought intensity and frequency analysis using SPI for Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract Views: 179  |  PDF Views: 86

Authors

S. Kokilavani
Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
S. P. Ramanathan
Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
Ga. Dheebakaran
Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
N. K. Sathyamoorthy
Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
N. K. Maragatham
Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
R. Gowtham
Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India

Abstract


To assess the drought hazard for different agro-climatic zones of Tamil Nadu (TN), India, the present study deals with temporal trend and spatial pattern of drought over the period 1981–2019. Standardized Pre­cipitation Index (SPI) has been used to detail the geographical variations of drought intensity, duration and frequency at multiple time steps. The spatial rainfall variability of the Southwest monsoon (SWM) ranged from 69.3 mm (Tuticorin) to 772.8 mm (the Nilgiris), and that for the Northeast monsoon (NEM) ranged from 277.8 mm (Krishnagiri) to 825.9 mm (Nagapattinam), while annual rainfall variability ranged from 558.8 mm (Tuticorin) to 1466.8 mm (the Nilgiris) for TN. Irrespective of all the regions, the frequency of moderate drought occurrence was higher compared to other drought nomenclature. The NEM season recorded on par and higher number of drought occurrences with respect to SWM season. Out of 39 years, TN experienced severely dry to extremely dry climate during 2002. The result underlines the potential of SPI in drought identification and also revealed that the rainfall is strongly linked to drought policies and measures imple­mented for the state.

Keywords


Northeast monsoon, rainfall, southwest monsoon, spatial variability, standardized precipitation index

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv121%2Fi6%2F781-788