Climatic variability in Bhadrak district of Odisha and its characterisation

Abstract

Climate variability and characterisation is very useful for understanding the current occurrence of the climate. Block wise historical rainfall data of 23 years (1995 to 2017) of Bhadrak District were collected and processed by using Weather cock software which revealed that the total mean annual rainfall of the district is 1431 mm. CV of annual rainfall in different blocks varies from 21-33%. Highest mean monthly rainfall in the district was in the month of July (286 mm) and December was the month of the lowest rainfall (4mm). Bhadrak receives almost 70% of mean annual rainfall during SW monsoon. Bhandaripokhari and Tihidi block had the highest of drought frequency (26%) followed by Dhamnagar block (21%). At 75% probability Bhadrak received 1152 mm rainfall, which is good amount of rainfall for crop production. Mean annual maximum temperature of Bhadrak district was 33oC and minimum temperature was 22.4oC. Hottest month in the district is May (37.5oC) and January was the coldest month (13.6oC). The number of occurrence of warm days in an increasing trend, while the occurrence of cold days was in decreasing trend