Department of Agriculture Meteorology, Anand Agriculture University, Anand, Gujarat -388110.
Keeping in view of the various uncertainties, long term climatic data of different stations of Gujarat have been analysed to ascertain the cliinatic change/variability in the state, Gujarat state faced continuous drought/low rainfall for four years (1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002) followed by five years of heavy rainfall (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 durin recent past period. Kutch having less rainfall (350 mm) had highest annual rainfall variability (57%) while the Dangs having highest rainfall (1792 mm) had lowest rainfall variability (29%). Kutch district and parts of Banasjantha, Patna, Surendranagar, Rajkot and Jamnagar districts were found prone to moderate to severe roughts in more than 30% of the years. The analysis conducted at Anand showed that June and September have received higher rainfall than that of July and August. The rainfall intensity in terms of daily maximum rainfall also showed increasing trend at Anand. The maximum temperature at Anand was between 9.2 to 0.5°c per decade. Similarly, the minimum temperatures was found to incrase but high slightly lower rate of 0.2 to 0.3°C per decade in different seasons.
