Analysis of extreme weather events over Sangli district of Western Maharashtra using RClimDex model

Western Maharashtra majorly has a tropical monsoon climate, which is characterized by hot summers and cool winters and by high rainfall during monsoon season. Western Maharashtra experiences moderate type of climate. Some part of the region adjacent to coast is hilly area having forest cover, due to which the rainfall intensity is more in such areas as compared to the eastern parts. The increased events of extreme weather conditions and growing consensus demands micro-level analysis in order to formulate location specific improvement programmes. The primary objective of the research was to compute temperature and precipitation-based extreme indices during the period from 1982 to 2022 Sangli district of Western Maharashtra using RClimDex model. The study was carried out at Department of Agricultural Meteorology, College of Agriculture, Pune during 2021-2023. Daily meteorological data of maximum temperature, minimum temperature and rainfall was obtained from website of India Meteorological Department, Pune. A Microsoft Excel-based application called RClimDex which offers a user- friendly package for calculating climate extreme indices, allowing users to monitor evolving trends in the environment and identify evidence of climate change was used for analysis. Analysis of extreme temperature and precipitation indices of Sangli district gave following results: out of total 18 temperature based extreme indices only 4 indices indicated decreasing trend while 12 indices showed increasing trend whereas two indices viz. number of frost days (FD0) and number of ice days (ID0) were found non-significant. Maximum consecutive 1-day precipitation (RX1day), consecutive wet days (CWD), annual number of very wet days (R95p), extremely wet days (R99p) and annual total wet-day precipitation (PRCPTOT) indicated significantly increasing trend over Sangli district region.