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Mal/sam , (l 979). 30,4.493-500

551.577.3(547)

Study of normal rainfall of Satara dist rict

A. K. MUKHERJ EE, B. SH YAMALA and RITA MAZUMDAR

Regional M eteorological CellIre, Bombay

tReceived 5 JUlie 1978)

ABSTRACT. Issue of districtwisc Farmers' Weather Bulletin in its present form, is too general to bcofanyspecific usc to the farmer. It was felt that uue mpts should be made to improve the Farmers' Weather Bulletinsand a beginning in this direction is made witha detailed study of rainfall characteristics over Madhya Maharashtra.It is oftenseen that there is wide variation inthe intensityanddistribution of rainfall even withinthesame district. Astudy of such rainfall characteristics of'Satara district insouth Madhya Mah arasht ra has beentaken up. A roughline of delineation runningnorth-south across the district is suggested which distinguishes the rainfall distribu­tion in the talukas to the west and the talukas to the cast.

actual dist ribution of rainfall in the district per­taining to specific synoptic situations.

Satara district at the western limit of the Deccantableland lies between 16°15' N & 18°10' Nand 73°45' E & 75°00' E, with an area of6474 sq. km. The district has a compact shape,with an east-west stretch of about 145 km andnor th-sout h about 121 krn. Residual hill rangesand intermediate valleys, all well developed on atableland surface, form the main element oflandscape in the Satara district. On the west it hasthe Sah yad rian sca rp with its majo r peaks usuallyflat topped and intervening saddles. The Mahadeora nge, which is the next major .well developedrange begins as an offshoot of the Sahyadries inthe northwestern part of the district. Eastwards itruns as a main range and sends off several minorranges southeastwards and southwards. Th oSahyadrian ran ges and its minor hill chains on theplateau surface, and the Mahade o ran ge and itsminor ranges, enclose between them the maj orriver system of Satara. In th is dist rict, there arefour distinct river basins. The Krishna drainingthe major portion to the south, Yerla also drain ingto the sou th, the mideastl'0 rt io ns, the Man drain­ing the eastern part s to joi n the Bhim a river outsidethe limits of the distr icts and the Nira drain ingthe nor thern belt of the district. Fig. I is the con ­tour map of Sat ara district.

Maha­Patan,talukas

2. Physical features of Satara district

3. DJta

1. Introduction

Of the many services rendered by the IndiaMeteorological Department, service to agricultureis very important in view of the fact that India isbasically an agricultura l country. India Meteoro­logical Department initiated an experimen talpro gramme of issuing Fa rmers' Weather Bulle­tin s in 1930, but these forecasts are too general tobe of any specific use to the farmer. In an area ofhighly variable rainfall, the farmer needs an accu­rate rain fall forecast for the different part s of thedistrict. In order to achieve this, backgrou ndinforma tion giving details of rainfall characteri sticsof the different parts of the district is absolutelynecessary.

It is well known that variabil ity of rainfall isvery high in Madh ya Maharasht ra during thechief rain y months, i.e., July and August. Thissub-division .has been selected for the study. It isobserved that there is a wide variation in theintensity and distr ibution of rainfall from onestation to another even within the same district.The District Gazetteers also show that the cro ppingpattern differs accord ingly from one par t of thedistrict to another. Thu s it was realised that thestudy of rainfall should begin from the talu ka levelin a distr ict. Satara district in south MadhyaMaharashtra has been selected initially for thestudy. Th is study will aid the forecaster in issuingmore meaningful bulletins with a fair degree ofconfidence in respect of specified areas of a district ,if possible even up to the taluka level. Basicallythis will involve a deta iled study of rainfall distri­bution over the district. As a first step in this direc-tion norm al rainfall of the district has been analysed Satara district consists of Khand ala, Waitand present ed in th is paper. In this series subsequent balcshwar, Mcdh a, Sata ra, Korcgaon ,papers will be all empts to go into the detail s of the Karad, Vaduj, Dahiwad i and Phaltan

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