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Statistical Characteristics of Extreme Rainfall Events Over the Indian Subcontinent

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Abstract

The understanding of various characteristics of rainfall is essential for water resources management. However, the highly varying nature of rainfall is constrained in accurate estimation of rainfall over a particular region. Such variability in rainfall leads to either floods or droughts, and both are potentially catastrophic. Moreover, anthropogenic climate change further complicates understanding the various characteristics of rainfall. Thus, understanding this chaotic nature of rainfall is not only interesting but also challenging. Over the Indian subcontinent, considerable attention is given to understanding the various statistical characteristics of seasonal, daily and extreme rainfall. However, the daily rainfall distribution inequality is not fully understood across the seasons over the Indian subcontinent. In this regard, the present study aims to employ the GINI inequality index to understand the daily rainfall concentration. The investigation of spatial and temporal variation in daily rainfall concentration helps in understanding atmospheric processes that influence rainfall variability. In addition, the peak over threshold method and two-parameter gamma distributions are employed to understand the statistical character and its relationship with rainfall distribution over the Indian subcontinent for all the seasons. The results would have significant implications in the flood and drought forecasting and water resources planners for sustainable water resources management.

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Acknowledgements

P. C. Anandh acknowledges the National Institute of Technology for the technical and financial support for the research work. The authors would like to acknowledge Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) for providing Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data and the Indian Meteorological Department for providing tropical cyclones best tracks. NKV would like to acknowledge the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Government of India (Grant Ref: ECR/2016/001896). Authors acknowledging anonymous reviewers and editors for the constructive and meticulous comments to improve the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Sundargarh, Odisha, 769008, India

    P. C. Anandh, Naresh Krishna Vissa & Bhishma Tyagi

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  1. P. C. Anandh
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  2. Naresh Krishna Vissa
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  3. Bhishma Tyagi
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Correspondence to Naresh Krishna Vissa .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Physical Oceanography Division, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, India

    A.S. Unnikrishnan

  2. Department of Earth Sciences and Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

    Fredolin Tangang

  3. School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Raymond J. Durrheim

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Anandh, P.C., Vissa, N.K., Tyagi, B. (2022). Statistical Characteristics of Extreme Rainfall Events Over the Indian Subcontinent. In: Unnikrishnan, A., Tangang, F., Durrheim, R.J. (eds) Extreme Natural Events. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2511-5_4

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