Long Term Temperature Trends at Major, Medium, Small Cities and Hill Stations in India during the Period 1901-2013

Industrialization and urbanization are the most dominant causal factors for long-term changes in surface air temperatures. To examine this fact, the long term changes in the surface-air temperatures have been evaluated by the linear trend for the different periods, i.e. 1901-2013, 1901-1970 and recent period 1971-2013 as rapid industrialization was observed during the recent four decades. In the present study, seasonal and annual mean, maximum and minimum temperature data of 36 stations for the period 1901-2013 have been used. These stations are classified into 4 groups, namely major, medium, small cities and hill stations. During the period 1901-1970, less than 50% stations from each group showed a significant increasing trend in annual mean temperature, whereas in the recent period 1971-2013, more than 80% stations from all the groups except small city group showed a significant increasing trend. The minimum temperature increased faster than that of the maximum temperature over major and medium cities, while maximum temperature increased faster than the minimum temperature over the small cities and hill stations. The annual mean temperature of all the coastal stations showed a significant increasing trend and positive correlation with Precipitable Water Vapour (PWV). The effect of PWV is more pronounced on minimum temperature than that of the maximum.