TITLE:
A Study of Decadal December Temperature Variability in Pakistan
AUTHORS:
Romana Ambreen, Iftikhar Ahmad, Shahzad Sultan, Zhaobo Sun, Muhammad Nawaz
KEYWORDS:
Temperature Anomaly, December, Pakistan, Decadal Scale, Spatial Distribution
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Climate Change,
Vol.3 No.5,
December
25,
2014
ABSTRACT: The
spatial distribution of December temperature in Pakistan has been assessed by
statistical method based on mean monthly data from 51 ground stations. The
analysis is performed at decadal scale over the period of 1950-2000. December
is one of the representative months of winter season in Pakistan, the country
with subtropical location and complex rugged terrains, plateaus and plains. The
results support a slight rising temperature trend in December. However, this
change in temperature varies from region to region as well as from decade to
decade and reflects a complicated spatial-temporal structure of temperature
anomalies. The assessment shows that the temperature anomalies in different
national territories at local scale do not follow the assumption that winter
months are warming in northern hemisphere. Both the isothermal shift and
temperature anomalies confirm that the mountainous areas of Pakistan face more
temperature variability than plains.