Long period instrumental rainfall series is vital for climate studies. Longest possible instrumental area-averaged monthly, seasonal and annual rainfall series of seven homogeneous zones and the whole India have been developed using highly quality-controlled data from well spread network of 316 raingauge stations. For the period 1901-2006 with complete data of all the stations, the area-averaged series has been prepared from simple arithmetic mean of the gauges in the particular area, and for the period prior to 1901 (sometimes going back to 1813) with lesser available observations the series is constructed by applying theoretically vindicated objective method.

The details of construction prior to 1901 and the full period monthly, seasonal and annual rainfall data for the seven homogeneous zones and all India are provided here in Table 2 to Table 9 (Holocene, 2008). For North Mountainous India (NMI) the construction details and the rainfall sequence are given in Table 2(a), and Table 2(b), for the Northwest India (NWI) are given in Table 3(a) and 3(b), for the North Central India (NCI) in Table 4(a) and 4(b), for the Northeast India (NEI) in Table 5(a) and 5(b), for the West Peninsular India (WPI) in Table 6(a) and 6(b), for the East Peninsular India (EPI) in Table 7(a) and 7(b), for the South Peninsular India (SPI) in Table 8(a) and 8(b) and for the whole country in Table 9(a) and 9(b) respectively. The data can be downloaded.

References

1. Sontakke N.A., Singh Nityanand and Singh H.N., (2008): Instrumental period rainfall series of the Indian region (1813-2005): revised reconstruction, update and analysis. The Holocene, Vol. 18, No. 7, pp. 1055-1066.

2. Sontakke N.A and Singh Nityanand, (1996): Longest instrumental regional and all-India summer monsoon rainfall series using optimum observations: Reconstruction and update. The Holocene, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.315-331.

3. Singh, N. (1994): Optimizing a network of stations over India to monitor summer monsoon rainfall variation. International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 14, pp. 61-70.

4. Sontakke N.A., Singh Nityanand and Pant G.B., (1993): Optimization of the Raingauges for a representative All-India and Subdivisional Series. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, Vol.47, No. 3, pp. 159-173.

5. Sontakke N.A., Pant G.B. and Singh Nityanand, (1993): Construction of all-India Summer Monsoon rainfall series for the Period 1844-1991. Journal of Climate, Vol. 6, No. 9, pp. 1807-1811.

6. Singh, N., Pant G. B. and Mulye S. S., (1991): A statistical package for constructing representative area-averaged rainfall series and its updating using selected stations data. Proc. Nat. Seminar on 'Use of Computers of computers in Hydrology and Water Resources', Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Vol. II, pp. 122-134.

7. Eliot J., (1902): Occasional discussions and compilations of meteorological data: India and the neighbouring countries. India Meteorological Memoirs Vol. XIV, pp.709

The above data may be freely used and redistributed for non-profit and non-commercial research purposes, provided The Holocene (2008) paper and IITM web site (http://www.tropmet.res.in) are duly acknowledged as the data source. Any redistribution should necessarily include this document.

The 316 raingauge stations' monthly rainfall data for the period 1901-2006 used to develop the rainfall sequences for different zones have been obtained from the India Meteorological Department, Pune (India) and is duly acknowledged. The data prior to 1901 was taken from Eliot (1902).

Please direct questions/queries to

Dr. Nityanand Singh
Scientist-F & Head
Climatology & Hydrometeorology Division
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology
Dr. Homi Bhabha Road
Pune 411 008, India
e-mail: nsingh@tropmet.res.in
Phone: +91-20-2589-3600 Ext. 351
Fax: +91-20-2589-3825

OR

Dr. (Mrs.) N.A. Sontakke
Scientist-D
Climatology & Hydrometeorology Division
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology
Dr. Homi Bhabha Road
Pune 411 008, India
e-mail: sontakke@tropmet.res.in
Phone: +91-20-2589-3600 Ext. 362
Fax: +91-20-2589-3825