Development of site-specific time distribution pattern of rainfall for Tarapur, India

Climate change has reportedly resulted in higher magnitude and frequency of extreme weather variables in many parts of India. Such studies pertaining to rainfall were based on long-period records, gridded rainfall data, or climate model projections, which have inherent uncertainties. As long-period records might not be available for many locations, gridded data or climate model analysis could be supplemented with the examination of short-period observations (< 20 years) for climate change effects. Detecting climate change effect from short-period high-resolution data has not yet been reported in the literature. For such exercise, this study proposes a framework based on trend analysis along with a demonstration case at a coastal site in India. Using the proposed analysis, indications of climate change are identified in short-period (January 1997 to December 2013: 17 years) high-resolution (hourly) rainfall data, which are subsequently corroborated with results from long-period (60-year) annual data from the site. This proof-of-concept study opens up an intriguing possibility of detecting climate change indications from short-period data, subject to validation on a larger scale with observations from more weather stations. The results could aid judicious decision-making regarding safety margins required in hydraulic design, to account for climate change effects. The methodology, if corroborated with more studies, might prove useful for detecting climate change effects from other short-period hydro-meteorological data as well. 

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Climate change indications in short-period rainfall records from coastal India using trend analysis: a proposed framework

The records obtained from the rain gauge stations may contain missing information or other forms of human or machine errors, which might hamper with analysis or lead to incorrect inferences drawn from the data. It is pertinent that the data should be screened and suitable quality checks be applied on the records before using them for hydrological analysis. In this paper, the statistical quality checks suitable for checking the quality of hourly time history of rainfall from a site are discussed along with example applications as a case study.

R. Harshanth

Papers

Quality Checks on Continuous Rainfall Records: A Case Study

Development of site-specific time distribution pattern of rainfall for Tarapur, India