Abstract
The drought analysis is a prime component in the preparedness of drought and the water resources management. The status of drought in Jaffna was investigated using standardized precipitation index (SPI) at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months’ time scale using monthly rainfall (1985 – 2019) data of <em>Thirunelvelli</em> meteorological station. Results revealed that the annual rainfall has no trend in long term but there were seasonal and short term variations found. Around 29% of study period was under dry condition. October, November, December and January months can be recorded as rainy months. Higher number of wet events was recorded during January to March. The second inter monsoon and northeast monsoon received high amount of rainfall. The number of wet event increases with years in <em>Yala</em> and vice versa during <em>Maha</em>. That is there was some variation in the onset of rainfall in this region. Nine hydrological years 1988- 89, 1990-91, 1994-95, 2000-01, 2004-05, 2009-10, 2013-14, 2016-17 and 2018-19 as dry years and 1985-86, 1993-94, 2001- 02, 2003-04, 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2014-15 have been identified as wet years. The result obtained through this time scale much with the country’s rainfall pattern. Therefore, SPI analysis confirms the historical drought situations over the country by using rainfall as an input.
Highlights
Agriculture sector is very sensitive to the climatic condition
The analysis shows the drought and wet condition at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 month time scale for Jaffna peninsula, Sri Lanka for the period of 1985-2019 (35 years)
The hydrological years 1985-86, 1993-94, 2001-02, 2003-04, 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2014-15 have been identified as wet years
Summary
Agriculture sector is very sensitive to the climatic condition. Sujitha and Shanmugasundaram, (2017) indicated that more than one half of the earth is susceptible to drought each year. Drought originates from a shortage of precipitation, high evapotranspiration and overexploitation of water resources or combination of all these factors (Bhuiyan, 2004). As indicated by Zagar et al, (2011), drought can be generally defined as the extreme persistence of precipitation deficit over a specific region for a specific period. Asefjahet al, (2014) explained the before mentioned droughts as less amount of precipitation from the normal precipitation over a specific period of time, the shortage in surface and subsurface water resources, the lack of soil moisture required for the development of a crop at a particular period and the failure of a water resources to meet the water demand respectively
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