4.7 Article

Observed rainfall changes in the past century (1901-2019) over the wettest place on Earth

Journal

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 16, Issue 2, Pages -

Publisher

IOP Publishing Ltd
DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/abcf78

Keywords

monsoon rainfall; rainfall analysis; trend detection; land use and land cover; climate indices; climate change

Funding

  1. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kgp)
  2. Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy of IIT Kgp (Project CMI/SRIC)
  3. Department of Science and Technology (DST) of the Ministry of Human Resource Development
  4. National Centre for Ocean Information Services Hyderabad of the Ministry of Earth Science (O-MASCOT project)
  5. Naval research Board of Defence Research and Development Organisation
  6. MHRD
  7. IIT KGP
  8. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune
  9. DST New Delhi

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Analysis of 119 years of rainfall measurements at 16 different rain gauge stations across northeast India reveals a significant change in rainfall pattern after 1973, with a decreasing trend. It has been observed that in recent decades, the wettest place in the world has shifted from Cherrapunji to Mawsynram, separated by 15 km.
Changes in rainfall affect drinking water, river and surface runoff, soil moisture, groundwater reserve, electricity generation, agriculture production and ultimately the economy of a country. Trends in rainfall, therefore, are important for examining the impact of climate change on water resources for its planning and management. Here, as analysed from 119 years of rainfall measurements at 16 different rain gauge stations across northeast India, a significant change in the rainfall pattern is evident after the year 1973, with a decreasing trend in rainfall of about 0.42 +/- 0.024 mm dec(-1). The wettest place of the world has shifted from Cherrapunji (CHE) to Mawsynram (MAW) (separated by 15 km) in recent decades, consistent with long-term rainfall changes in the region. The annual mean accumulated rainfall was about 12 550 mm at MAW and 11 963 mm at CHE for the period 1989-2010, as deduced from the available measurements at MAW. The changes in the Indian Ocean temperature have a profound effect on the rainfall in the region, and the contribution from the Arabian Sea temperature and moisture is remarkable in this respect, as analysed with a multivariate regression procedure for the period 1973-2019. The changes in land cover are another important aspect of this shift in rainfall pattern, as we find a noticeable reduction in vegetation area in northeast India in the past two decades, implying the human influence on recent climate change.

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