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Theor Appl Climatol (2013) 111:417425 DOI 10.1007/s00704-012-0646-6
ORIGINAL PAPER
Temperature trends of Chennai City, India
Anushiya Jeganathan & Ramachandran Andimuthu
Received: 12 September 2011 /Accepted: 27 March 2012 /Published online: 25 May 2012 # Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract Chennai is the fourth largest metropolitan city in India, and it is one of India's chief industrial and economic growth centers. The temperature change in Chennai is studied in this research by analyzing the mean maximum temperature (MMaxT), mean minimum temperature (MMinT), and mean annual temperature (MAT) from 1951 to 2010. Data are analyzed in three parts by running linear regression and by taking anomalies of all time periods: (a) the whole period from 1951 to 2010; (b) phase 1, 19511980; and (c) phase 2, 19812010. The trends have been evaluated by Student's t statistics and supported by Mann Kendall rank statistics. The observed change in temperature is positive, which has been clear increasing trends in MMaxT, MMinT, and MAT. MAT has increased 1.3C since the last 60 years. MMaxT has increased up to 1.6C, in which the second phase accounts for 75 % of the total change during the last 60 years. MMinT over Chennai has increased 1.0C. There is a high rise in temperature during winter season.
1 Introduction
The significant increase in the global surface air temperature during the past century is probably the most widely quoted
aspect of climatic change. In recent years, a change in climate has been documented in many locations throughout the world. An increasing body of observations and analysis gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system. Meteorological data compiled over the past century suggest that the earth is warming, but there are significant differences at the regional level (Rupa Kumar et al. 2003). There are strong human influences, for example irrigation and agricultural impacts along with land-use change, cloud cover and aerosol feedback, on regional climates (Sen Roy et al. 2007; Sen Roy and Balling 2005). Land regions have warmed faster than the oceans (IPCC 2007). The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report concluded that most of the observed increase in average temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations (Cruz et al....