Estimating missing daily temperature extremes in Jaffna, Sri Lanka

The accuracy of reconstructing missing daily temperature extremes in the Jaffna climatological station, situated in the northern part of the dry zone of Sri Lanka, is presented. The adopted method utilizes standard departures of daily maximum and minimum temperature values at four neighbouring stati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Theoretical and applied climatology 2018-04, Vol.132 (1-2), p.145-152
Main Authors: Thevakaran, A., Sonnadara, D.U.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Aquatic Pollution
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Atmospheric Sciences
Climate science
Climatology
Daily
Daily temperatures
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Estimation
Maximum temperatures
Methods
Minimum temperatures
Original Paper
Temperature
Temperature effects
Temperature extremes
Waste Water Technology
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
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Summary:The accuracy of reconstructing missing daily temperature extremes in the Jaffna climatological station, situated in the northern part of the dry zone of Sri Lanka, is presented. The adopted method utilizes standard departures of daily maximum and minimum temperature values at four neighbouring stations, Mannar, Anuradhapura, Puttalam and Trincomalee to estimate the standard departures of daily maximum and minimum temperatures at the target station, Jaffna. The daily maximum and minimum temperatures from 1966 to 1980 (15 years) were used to test the validity of the method. The accuracy of the estimation is higher for daily maximum temperature compared to daily minimum temperature. About 95% of the estimated daily maximum temperatures are within ±1.5 °C of the observed values. For daily minimum temperature, the percentage is about 92. By calculating the standard deviation of the difference in estimated and observed values, we have shown that the error in estimating the daily maximum and minimum temperatures is ±0.7 and ±0.9 °C, respectively. To obtain the best accuracy when estimating the missing daily temperature extremes, it is important to include Mannar which is the nearest station to the target station, Jaffna. We conclude from the analysis that the method can be applied successfully to reconstruct the missing daily temperature extremes in Jaffna where no data is available due to frequent disruptions caused by civil unrests and hostilities in the region during the period, 1984 to 2000.
ISSN:0177-798X
1434-4483
DOI:10.1007/s00704-017-2082-0