Recent Climatic Trends in Bangladesh

Abstract

This work is an attempt to study the characteristics of different climatic parameters and the recent climatic trends in Bangladesh by using the surface climatological data at 30 stations for the period of 34 years from 1971 to 2004. The Co-efficient of variation of annual rainfall varies from 14.3% at Satkhira to 30.8% at Chandpur. In analyzing the temperature over Bangladesh, a general increasing trend has been noticed. The annual maximum temperature shows positive trends of +0.023 oC/ year at Barisal. The annual minimum temperature shows positive trends at all stations except Hatiya. Drought analysis has been done throughout the country. The monthly drought analysis shows that the period from November to April is affected by drought. Bangladesh has experienced droughts of major magnitude in 1971, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1989, 1992, 1994 and 1995. Climatologically Bangladesh was divided in different zones by six different methods. According to Koppen classification, more than 50% of the total stations of the country falls under the ‘Tropical monsoon: Hot; seasonally excessive rainfall’ type of climate and the remaining 50% falls under ‘Tropical savanna: Hot; seasonally dry’ type and “Subtropical monsoon: Mild winter; dry winter, hot summer” type of climate.