Drought analysis for Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand (India)

The present study was taken up for Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand to analyse the rainfall pattern in respect of drought conditions. The weekly rainfall data of 25 years (19882012) were analysed for weekly, monthly, seasonal, and annual behaviour of the rainfall in the study area. The rainfall analysis indicated that the maximum amount of rainfall was observed to be 158.58 mm in the 33^rd week followed by 106.76 mm in the 28^th week. The minimum amount of rainfall was observed to be 0.86 mm in the 43^rd week followed by 0.87 mm in the 47^th week. The average monthly rainfall was observed to be minimum (5.2 mm) during the month of November and maximum (492.10 mm) during the month of July. The total annual rainfall was irregular in nature with the minimum total of 930.8mm in 2009 and maximum total of 3123.4mm in 2000. The average annual rainfall was found to be 1579.52 mm. During the period of 25 years that the maximum occurrence of drought was observed (24 times) during 46^th standard week (month of November) and the 28^th standard week (month of July) was found to be least draught week, with draught occurrence only one time. Excess/surplus amount of rainfall was available in the 1^st and 39^th standard weeks (January and September month) with 6 occurrencesduring the period of 25 years. The month of November was observed to be highest prone to drought with 17 occurrences and the month of July is least prone to draught with two occurrences. It is interesting to note that though the month of November is prone to draught, it is also prone to excess rainfall, 7 occurrences out of 25. The month of July was observed to have normal rainfall generally, 23 occurrences. It was also observed that maximum contribution (86.92%) to annual rainfall (1579.52 mm) comes from seasonal rainfall (1372.93 mm, observed during June-September).