Temperature extremes and their future projections in selected Indian cities along with their meteorological subdivisions and temperature homogeneous zones

• Published in: Urban climate 2022-01, Vol.41, p.101057, Article 101057
• Main Authors: Dash, S.K., Saraswat, Vaishali, Panda, S.K., Pattnayak, K.C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cold night; Extremes; Meteorological sub-divisions; RegCM; Temperature homogeneous zones; Warm days
• ISSN: 2212-0955; 2212-0955
• DOI: 10.1016/j.uclim.2021.101057

Various observational and modelling studies indicate rise in surface air temperature and its extremes at several places in the world. With the availability of more data both from observations and models, it is possible to comprehensively examine future projections in order to get meaningful climate information and identify strong climate signals anywhere. This study is focused on rise in surface air temperatures and the associated temperature related extreme events such as warm days & nights and cold days and nights at four city clusters in India such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Guwahati. Dynamically downscaled future projections at the four selected city clusters are examined using RegCM CORDEX simulations. Further, selected CMIP model projections are used. In this study, uniformity of the trends in the selected indices found in each city are tested against those found in the corresponding Meteorological Sub-Divisions and Temperature Homogeneous Zones. Increase in the surface air minimum and maximum temperatures along with the frequency of occurrence of warm nights at all the four city clusters are the strong signals of climate projection obtained from this study. [Display omitted] •This study examines the daily minimum and maximum temperatures and extreme temperature events in four city clusters in India.•Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Guwahati are the four city clusters selected for this study.•There is a very good agreement between the model output and observed temperature indices.•In the climate projection, there is a strong signal of increase in minimum and maximum temperatures at all the city clusters.•Further, the increase in the frequency of occurrence of warm nights is a robust signal of climate change.