Investigations into Precipitation and Drought Climatologies in South Central Asia with Special Focus on Pakistan over the Period 1951-2010

The climatology of precipitation and drought are analyzed by using different indices in the region of south central Asia (SCA). The spatial precipitation pattern is delineated by using principal component analysis (PCA) over the period of 1951-2010, which identifies six subregions in the SCA. The monthly and annual trends of precipitation were analyzed by applying the five statistical tests: Student's t, Mann-Kendall, and Spearman's rho tests for linear trend and turning point analysis and Sen's slope for randomness and slope magnitude, respectively, at the alpha = 0.05 significance level. The time series analysis shows data similarity between Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and area-weighted precipitation of 52 meteorological stations in Pakistan, which results in a high correlation (R-2 = 0.93). Two main drought periods were identified (1971 and 2000-02); also, 2001 was an extremely dry year in the SCA region. The drought in 1952 was the most severe in Pakistan; the longest drought period was 2000-02. Intense droughts were reported in the whole SCA region when the annual percent of precipitation was below 80%. It is noted that the A-5 region (northeast SCA), where 19 droughts were reported, is the most vulnerable. The monthly precipitation analysis shows a significant increasing trend in the months of September and June in the A-3 (northwest SCA) and A-5 regions, respectively, while a decreasing trend is observed in January and August in the A-4 region (east SCA). The decadal analysis shows significant decreasing trend (-21.5 mm decade(-1)) in region A-4, while the highest increasing trends (17.1 and 7.5 mm decade(-1)) are observed in Pakistan and the A-5 region respectively.