Role of El Niño/La Niña in temperature extremes over India

✍ Scribed by J. V. Revadekar; D. R. Kothawale; K. Rupa Kumar

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 221 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0899-8418
• DOI: 10.1002/joc.1851

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

El Niño and La Niña are well known to be associated with significant monthly/seasonal climate anomalies at many places around the globe. Therefore, an attempt is made in this study to analyse objectively defined indices of observed temperature extremes over India, in terms of their frequencies and intensities, in relation to El Niño/La Niña events using daily station data for minimum and maximum temperature at 121 well‐distributed stations for the period 1970–2003.

There is a characteristic change in the El Niño southern oscillation (ENSO)‐associated extremes with the onset of the summer monsoon in June; El Niño is associated with lower frequency of warm extremes during the pre‐monsoon months and with higher frequency of warm extremes during the monsoon and post‐monsoon season. The opposite features are seen in the case of La Niña. In addition, El Niño leads to an increase in extreme highest temperature, whereas La Niña leads to a decrease, during monsoon and post‐monsoon months. Strong antecedent relationship exists between ENSO index and various seasonal extreme temperature indices over the Indian region, indicating potential for long‐range prediction of temperature extremes. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society