2023, Vol. 8, Special Issue 6

The historical daily rainfall data of 49 years (1973-2022) in Mandya district of Karnataka have been analyzed for establishing the long term averages of weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual rainfall and its variability. Increasing and decreasing mean annual rainfall was recorded in the results which indicated that rainfall was not uniform over the years and variability showed an increasing trend. The overall mean annual rainfall at Mandya district was 716.3 mm with distribution of 8.0 mm, 161.6 mm, 321.2 mm and 225.5 mm in Winter (Jan-Feb), Pre-monsoon (Mar-May), Monsoon (Jun-Sep) and Post monsoon (Oct-Dec) respectively. The month of October received maximum mean rainfall of 161.1mm contributing to 22.5% followed by September month 129.8mm and contribution of 18.1%. Mandya district was frequently affected by periodical drought and the study indicated that for the past 49 years, 3 years were experienced with Slight Drought (>-19 to -25% D from N) and 9 years falls under moderate drought (-26 to -49% D from N). Whereas, year 1982 and 1990 were affected due to severe drought with -49.3% and -58.4% deviation in rainfall than the normal respectively.