Precipitation in Nepal between 1987 and 1996

Rain gauge station data from 1987 to 1996 were used to investigate spatial and temporal variability in monthly precipitation and annual and seasonal precipitation patterns over Nepal. Maximum annual precipitation increased with altitude for elevations below 2000 m but decreased for elevations of 2000-3500 m. The data revealed a negative relationship between annual precipitation and elevation only in western Nepal. Annual precipitation averaged on a 0.25 degrees grid exceeded 3000 mm/yr in central Nepal but was less than 1000 mm/yr over Nepal's northwestern mountains. Only winter precipitation over western Nepal was heavier than precipitation over central and eastern Nepal. A time series of standardized precipitation anomalies averaged over Nepal revealed no significant long-term trends. Further, almost no stations exhibited significant long-term trends by Kendall's rank correlation analysis. A correlation analysis between summer monsoon precipitation and the All Indian Rainfall (AIR) index revealed positive and negative correlations in western and eastern Nepal, respectively. This analysis also revealed a positive correlation, but no negative correlation, between summer monsoon precipitation and the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) in western and eastern Nepal. Composite differences in temperature, 850-hPa winds, outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), and precipitation rates between low and high AIR phases revealed that moist air from the Arabian Sea supported precipitation over western Nepal, whereas cold dry air from the Tibetan Plateau suppressed precipitation over eastern Nepal. However, composite differences in precipitation between low and high SOI phases revealed no anomalies for Nepal. Copyright (C) 2007 Royal Meteorological Society.