Manjari Singh , Mathieu Ouedraogo, Ajeet Singh Nain

This study presents an analysis of extreme temperature and precipitation events in the capital cities of India during 40-years study period (1982-2022). Daily maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and rainfall from NASA-POWER were used to compute climate extreme indices, recommended by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) and Expert Team on Sector-Specific Climate Indices (ET-SCI). This is the first study analyzing the trend of extreme indices, with a focus only on its capital cities, and not for the country as a whole. Findings indicate that capital cities situated in the western ghat, islands, and Himalayan range, especially the north-eastern part of the country recorded increasing extremes of both temperature and precipitation in the last 40 years. The cities have experienced overall night-time warming and day-time cooling during the study period. A maximum decrease of -2.16oC was observed in Aizawl for the mean maximum temperature (TXm), whereas, an increase of +1oC was found in Kavaratti. There was a significant decrease in the summer days (SU25; 72 days in Aizawl), whereas, the tropical nights were observed to have significantly increased (TR20; 40 days in Shillong). In terms of precipitation extreme indices, cities located in the eastern and north-eastern parts of the country were exposed to the risks of higher amount and intensity of rainfall. Cities such as Patna and Lucknow however, witnessed significant reduction in the rainfall, and thus increased consecutive dry days. Overall, our study recommends the urgent need of planning considering the trend of these indices and taking appropriate action.