Trends in Extreme Climate Indices in Cherrapunji for the period 1979 to 2020

Abstract We have used Mann-Kendall trend test and Sen’s slope estimator method to find out significant changes in extreme climate indices for daily temperature as well as precipitation over the period 1979 to 2020 in Cherrapunji. In the present study, a total of 24 precipitation and temperature based extreme climate indices were calculated using RClimDex v 1.9-3. Among 24 indices, 7 were derived from number of days above nn mm rainfall (Rnn) according to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) convention and the rest were in accordance with the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). It was observed that, among all the indices, consecutive dry days (CDD), summer days (SU25) and very light rainfall (VLR) days increased significantly with 0.54, 1.58 and 0.14 days/year respectively, while only consecutive wet days (CWD) decreased significantly with 0.36 days/year. A slight negative trend was also observed in case of tropical nights (TR20) and among the other precipitation indices as well. Again, the indices associated with daily maximum temperature increased significantly with annual change of 0.06 to 0.07 ⁰C/year. And for indices associated with daily minimum temperature, almost no change or a slight negative change was observed, except a significant positive trend in February and significant negative trend in November for TNN only. The analysis reveals that some of the extreme climate indices which explains the climatic conditions of Cherrapunji has changed a lot over the period of 42 years and if this trend continues then Cherrapunji will be under threat when it comes to climate change.