Tripura - Climate
The climate of Tripura exhibits a strong seasonal rhythm. The state is characterised by a warm and humid tropical climate with five distinct seasons, namely, spring, summer, monsoon, autumn and winter. Spring starts from late mid-February & continues till midMarch. Winter returns if there is rain a fresh in mid-February. Summer season starts from middle of March and reaches its peak in April - May. Pre-monsoon rain is always experienced after Jhum harvesting in the hills in March-April. Occasionally there is hardly any gap between pre-monsoon and monsoon rain. The recorded maximum temperature is 35.60°c. The monsoon generally breaks in the later part of May or first week of June and lasts till September. /p>
Winter sets in from November and is severe in the month of January when minimum temperature recorded is 4ºc in January 1995. Humidity is generally high throughout the year. In the summer season the relative humidity is varied from 50 percent to 74 percent whereas in the rainy season it is over 85 percent.
Relatively high temperature, occasional thunderstorms and wind velocities characterise the summer season, which extends from March end to mid May. The average maximum temperature is 34ºC and average minimum temperature is 15ºC. The annual minimum and maximum ambient temperatures recorded at Agartala Airport of the Tripura West District during 1994 are 15.9ºC and 33.4ºC respectively.
A more sensitive element of climate is the variation in rainfall. It varies not only from place to place or from year to year, but also between seasons. The state is a high rainfall zone with the incidence of very high concentration of rainfall (up to 450 mm per day) in the monsoon season, which lasts from June to September. The average annual rainfall in the state is 2024.4 mm (50 years average). Maximum rainfall is generally received in the months of July to September. Intermittent rainfall is received round the year, but the pattern of rainfall throughout the year is not homogenous.
Annual rainfall ranges from 1922 mm to 2855 mm. The rainfall generally increases from Southwest to Northeast. There is a big gap in the rainfall content in southern and central part around Amarpur, which is surrounded by 1500 mm. Isohyets. The northeastern part of the state around Dharmanagar gets maximum rainfall. Most of the rain comes during the months April June and July to September. This period is generally referred to as the kharif season and this is the major agricultural season of the state.
Humidity is generally high throughout the year. During the summer, the humidity varies between 50% and 75% while in the southwest monsoon it is over 80%. Due to high rainfall in the area and relatively high temperature, humidity is also very high. Skies are heavily clouded during the southwest monsoon season. In the post-monsoon months cloud formation is moderate. During winter season sky is predominantly clear from clouds and occasional light cloud formation prevails.
Winds are generally light except in the later half of summer and the monsoon months when they are moderate. During summer and to a lesser extent in the post – monsoon season, winds are south-easterly. They gradually are back to a northerly direction in the post-monsoon and early winter season. Thereafter, the southern-lies begin and these become predominant in the summer.
Tripura is frequently visited by natural disasters which play havoc on an already impoverished economy. Floods are a recurring calamity while earthquakes and droughts are not infrequent, all particularly affecting the vulnerable sections. Forest fires are another unrelenting disaster occurring across the forestlands of the State.
More than 750 km2 of land area of the State is considered to be flood prone . Nearly all the rivers are rain-fed and are prone to flood. During the past twenty years two massive floods occurred in 1999 and 2004 causing huge economic cost. The 1999 floods followed incessant rain that was almost double the normal rainfall and it was extremely heavy during 8-12 of July resulting in the floods. The damage was particularly severe in South Tripura and West Tripura districts. Especially Gumti River had turned immensely destructive and the total damage caused by this flood was estimated at Rs 498.5 million.
Two episodes of devastating floods occurred in June/July and September 2004, following unprecedented rainfall. For example, while the usual average rainfall in North District during the month of July was 700.9 mm, in 2004 it was 2,102.8 mm; where as the usual average for South Tripura in the month of September is 298.4 mm, in 2004 it was as high as 1,491.8 mm.
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