Vol. 3 (2) : March-April 2012 issue
Green Farming Vol. 3 (2) : 166-170 (March-April, 2012)
Investigation of meteorological droughts in semi-arid region of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
M. MANIKANDANa1*, D. TAMILMANIa2 and G. THIYAGARAJANb3
aDeptt. of Soil & Water Conservation Engineering, Agricultural Engineering College & Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641 003 (Tamil Nadu)
bAgricultural Research Station, Bhavanisagar - 638 451(Tamil Nadu)
Designation : 1Ph.D. Scholar *(muthiahmanikandan29@gmail.com), 2Professor & Head, 3Asstt. Professor
Subject : Agriculture Engineering, Farm Machinery, Energy & Power and Process Engineering
Paper No. :
Total Pages : 5
Received : 02 February 2012
Revised accepted : 25 March 2012
Get Access
Citation :
M. MANIKANDAN, D. TAMILMANI and G. THIYAGARAJAN. 2012. Investigation of meteorological droughts in semi-arid region of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Green Farming Vol. 3 (2) : 166-170 ; March-April, 2012
ABSTRACT
The present study aims to assess the normal, abnormal and drought conditions of different weeks, months and years using twenty seven years rainfall data (1981 to 2007) for Coimbatore. Probability of occurrence and recurrence interval of weekly and monthly drought, abnormal and normal conditions were found. The average drought, abnormal and normal weeks in a year is 33, 8 and 11. Drought weeks were experienced during the 1st to 14th and 50th to 52nd weeks. The probability of occurrence of 33 drought weeks in year is 51.85 per cent with the return period of 1.93 year. The average drought, abnormal and normal months in a year is 5, 4 and 3. The highest number of occurrence of droughts was observed in the month of February. 25.93 per cent of years received average number of drought months (5 months) with the probability of 44.44 per cent and recurrence interval of 2.25 years. The number of drought, abnormal and normal years during the study period was 5, 6 and 16. The annual rainfall received during drought years varies from 477.3 mm (minimum) in 1995 to 532.4 mm (maximum) in 2002. The drought with highest rainfall deficit was observed in 1992 with moderate drought intensity. There are chances of drought occurrence once in every three years.
Key words :
Drought intensity, meteorological drought, probability, rainfall deficiency.
