Study on variability in certain meteorological parameters in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu State

The earth climate is generally defined as the average weather over a long period of time. A place or region´s climate is determined by both natural and anthropogenic factors. The natural elements include the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere, while the human factors include land and resource uses. Changes in any of these factors can cause local, regional, or even global changes in the climate. In this paper, climate variability in Cuddalore district has been assessed through trend analysis of selected meteorological parameters. Statistical techniques have been used to detect and assess the climate variability in terms of rainfall and temperature. Cuddalore district is located between 11°11´ N to 12°35´ N latitude and 78°38´E to 80°00´ E longitude. Representative meteorological parameters have been statistically analysed over the Cuddalore district for 102 years (1901 to 2002) to detect temporal shift. The analysis shows mild increasing trend in rainfall and steep increasing trend in temperature in Cuddalore district. This may be attributed to emission of gasses, industrialization, urbanization and land use.