Rainfall variability over the past three decades were analysed for various locations (Ballowal Saunkhri, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Bathinda) in different Agroclimatic zones of Punjab on annual, seasonal, monthly and weekly basis. The trend lines obtained by regressing the five-yearly moving averages against time for rainfall revealed a no significant change at different locations over the past three decades. The earlier study conducted over a period of 1970–1998 revealed an overall increase in rainfall at different locations. But as from 1999 to 2005, below normal rainfall was received at all the five locations during the year 1999, 2002, 2004 and 2005, so no significant trend in increase/decrease of rainfall was observed at all the locations. The mean annual rainfall experienced at Ballowal Saunkhri was 1122mm (CV, 26.4%), Amritsar was 713mm (CV, 26.3%), Ludhiana was 750mm (CV, 31.5%), Patiala was 788mm (CV, 36.5%) and Bathinda was 539mm (CV, 36.0%). Ballowal Saunkhri, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Bathinda received the highest annual rainfall of 2041mm (1988), 1103 mm (1984), 1334 mm (1988), 1497 mm (1988) and 984 mm (1990), respectively. Amongst the five locations only Bathinda station (Agroclimatic Zone IV) did not receive any rainfall in July (1982) and August (2002) within the monsoon period over the last three decades. July was observed to be the month registering the highest rainfall of 207, 220,224 and 141 mm at Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Bathinda, respectively. November was observed to be the month registering the lowest rainfall of 8 mm (CV 180%), 6.6 mm (CV 174%), 7.5 mm (CV 207%), 8.4 mm (CV 133%) and 4.6 mm (CV 122%) at Ballowal Saunkhri, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Bathinda, respectively.
Annual, Monthly, Rainfall, Seasonal, Variability, Weekly
