A Regional Scale EOF Analysis of Rainfall over Kerala

Abstract

The state of Kerala in India has been facing climate related issues over past 3-4 years. Here, recent changes over the state have been examined using a 0.25° × 0.25°gridded rainfall data procured from India Meteorological department (IMD). The result suggests that, some significant changes are happening over the state especially over Kasargod, Idukki and Wayanad districts. The feature analysis using Empirical Orthogonal Functions also reveals the same story of change in climate. The EOF1 and EOF2 show distinct features and the principal component loadings indicate the high correlation of PC1 with the observed rainfall. The high correlation of PC1 indicates its efficacy to predict the Kerala rainfall.