Trend and frequency analysis of western disturbances and its impact on major crops of Solan district of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

The study was conducted to examine the trend and frequency distribution of western disturbances (WD) and their effect on crops grown in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh. The daily rainfall data was collected for the period of 1971–2021. The results revealed that during the period of 50 years, the WD arrived as early as in the month of October and occurred as late as in May in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh. The duration of WD persisted for 1 to 5 days. The number of WD with 1 day duration was found to be highest in May (89) and lowest during the month of November (21). The Man-Kendall and Sen’s slope estimator analysed an annual increasing trend of Z=2.62 number of WD year-1 and Q=0.47 number of WD year-1. The deterministic coefficient explained the positive relationship between the number of WD and productivity at the development stage while showing a negative relationship at the maturity stage of different crops.