Journal of Indian Water Resources Society,

Vol 34, No.3, July, 2014

MONTHLY VARIATIONS OF AIR TEMPERATURE LAPSE RATES IN

ARUNACHAL HIMALAYA
Arnab Bandyopadhyay*, Aditi Bhadra, Minotshing Maza and Shelina R.K.
ABSTRACT
The atmospheric lapse rate is the change in temperature with altitude. In this study, decrease of air temperature with altitude was estimated by
simple linear regression for maximum, minimum and mean monthly temperatures. In Arunachal Himalayan region, sixteen sites with different
elevations ranging from 131 m to 3417 m were analyzed to compute the temperature lapse rate on monthly basis. For linear regression
analysis, a program was developed in MATLAB and correlation between temperature and altitude was evaluated using coefficient of
determination (R2) for each month and for the whole year. From the generated linear regression models, it was observed that the monthly
near-surface lapse rate (A) varies within 0.320.56, 0.440.54, and 0.360.52 C (100 m)-1 for maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures,
respectively, and the annual near-surface lapse rate values were 0.464, 0.476, and 0.455 C (100 m)-1, respectively. The temperature at sea
level varies in the range of 21.8333.38, 12.5526.29, and 16.4429.23 C for maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures, respectively, on
monthly basis and the annual average values were 28.52, 20.28, and 23.80 C, respectively. Coefficient of determination (R2) for monthly
basis varies in the range of 0.460.88, 0.730.89 and 0.700.89 for maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures, respectively, and its values
were 0.85, 0.93, and 0.91, respectively, for annual basis. Correlation between temperature and altitude were found to be quite satisfactory in
this region.
Keywords: Near Surface Lapse Rate; Simple Linear Regression; Eastern Himalaya; Maximum, Minimum and Mean Monthly Temperature

INTRODUCTION
The atmospheric lapse rate is the change in temperature with
altitude. Factors such as location and time of the year affect the
atmospheric lapse rate. The amount of water vapour present in
the air also strongly affects the lapse rate. Dry air cools at
about 10 C/km (the dry adiabatic lapse rate), while moist air
usually cools at less than 6 C/km (moist adiabatic lapse rate).
Adiabatic means that no outside heat is involved in the
warming or cooling of the air parcels.
When air becomes cold enough, water vapour in a rising parcel
of air condenses. Heat is released when the phase changes
from gas to liquid as little work is done in the water molecules.
The heat, that is released, decreases the cooling that takes place
in the air parcel. As a result, a rising parcel of dry air cools
faster than a moist parcel of air. And conversely a sinking
parcel of dry air warms faster than a sinking parcel of moist
air. Moist air is forced to rise when it reaches a mountain range
and this rising air cools at moist adiabatic lapse rate. This
vapour, some or all, eventually condensed and falls down as
rain or snow. As compared to the air before encountering the
mountain range it is drier and warmer. Thus, at lower elevation
range, temperature follows moist adiabatic lapse rate and dry
adiabatic lapse rate at higher elevation.
Spatial-temporal patterns of temperature variability are
relevant in hydrological modeling. Extrapolating of
temperature from meteorological stations, which are often
sparse in high elevation as compared to that in lower elevation,
is a common practice. Extrapolating or interpolating of
temperatures on climatic time scales is considered to be a
relatively straightforward meteorological variable, as for longterm climatology temperature fields are continuous and
horizontal temperature gradients are typically low, where the
Department of Agricultural Engineering, North Eastern Regional Institute
of Science and Technology, Nirjuli (Itanagar) 791109, Arunachal
Pradesh
E. mail* (Corresponding Author): arnabbandyo@yahoo.co.in
Manuscript No. 1365

effects of weather system and fronts average out. Vertical

temperature gradients are much higher, and a constant
atmospheric lapse rate of 6 to7 C/km is assumed when
extrapolating temperature fields to higher or lower elevations.
However this approximation is based on average observed lapse
rate in free atmosphere and represents a typical adiabatic
cooling rate, and is not suitable for precise studies.
Despite their broad application, it is not clear that free-air lapse
rate offer an appropriate estimate of vertical gradients in the
surface temperature. The primary determinant of surface
temperature is local surface energy balance (net radiative and
turbulent heat flux). This introduces the complicated role of
surface environment (albedo, roughness, topographic aspect,
and wind regime) and atmospheric conditions (clouds, relative
humidity) indicating spatial and temporal patterns of surface
temperature. Elevation exacts many influences, as incoming
shortwave and longwave radiation increases and decreases
with altitude, respectively. In addition, sensible and latent heat
transfers depend on atmospheric temperature and moisture
content, which exhibit strong vertical gradients in free
atmosphere. High altitude surface environment are therefore
still influenced by free-atmosphere temperature gradients.
Few published studies address near-surface temperature lapse
rates and their variability, although their complexity is well
acknowledged (Pielke and Mehring, 1977; Richner and
Phillips, 1984; Tabony, 1985; McCutchan and Fox, 1986;
Greuell and Bohm, 1998; Bolstad et al., 1998; Pepin et al.,
1999; Pepin, 2000). Regional and local studies that report nearsurface temperature lapse rates typically find average values
that are less than free-air lapse rates: for instance 5.3 C/km in
Iceland (Jhannesson et al., 1995), 5.5 C/km in the Faeroe
Islands (Humlum and Christiansen, 1998), 5.2C/km in the
Argentinian Andes (Trombotto et al., 1997), 5.2 C/km in the
Canadian Rockies (Shea et al., 2004), and 2.08 C/km in Nepal
(Shilpakar et al., 2008). Rolland (2003) estimated the decrease
of air temperature with altitude by simple linear regression for
several regions around Northern Italy for maximum, minimum
and mean monthly temperatures. Yearly lapse rates ranging
from -0.54 to -0.58 C (100 m)-1 was obtained. The degree to

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J. Indian Water Resour. Soc., Vol. 34, No. 3, July, 2014

which topographic information influences the lapse rate

determination was also quantified. The addition of topographic
information significantly increases the temperature
interpolation reliability, especially for slopes sites. Pepin and
Losleben (2002) in the eastern slopes of the Colorado Rocky
mountains carried out an excellent discussion and comparison
of near-surface versus free air lapse rates. Their study showed
that screen-temperature lapse rate exhibits diurnal and seasonal
variability, with significant departures from nearby free-air
lapse rate.
The determination of the form of precipitation (rainfall or
snow) is influenced by the distribution of temperature based on
temperature lapse rate. Runoff-computation is again influenced
by the form of precipitation. For temperature
extrapolation/interpolation in the same region, separate values
of temperature lapse rate for maximum, minimum, and mean
temperatures are recommended. Weather stations for
measuring air temperature are very limited in mountainous
region, especially at high elevation or in uninhabited areas of
Arunachal
Pradesh
of
India.
Therefore
extrapolation/interpolation of sparse data over large distance is
required for obtaining temperatures values at gagged location.
Near surface temperature lapse rate which follows typical
moist adiabatic cooling rate need to be assessed in this station.
The main goals of this study were:

To develop relationships between air temperature and

altitude.

To determine seasonal variation of temperature lapse

rate in Arunachal Himalaya.

The lower Himalayas range up to 3,500 m altitude,

3.

The sub-Himalayas belt including the Siwalik hills,

altitude up to 1,700 m above mean sea level,

4.

The plains which are the eastern constitute of Assam

plains. The elevation of plains varies from 80 to 210
m above mean sea level and it is drained by different
rivers.

The climate of Arunachal Pradesh is humid to per-humid

subtropical characterized by high rainfall and high humidity at
sub-Himalayan belt. However, temperate climate prevails at
lower Himalayan region. The greater Himalayan region is
covered with perpetual snow. The average annual rainfall
varies from 1,380 to 5,500 mm.

Data Acquisition
The hourly data of meteorological parameters, maximum and
minimum temperature were collected for 18 stations of
Arunachal Pradesh for the period of five years (2008 2012).
The data were directly downloaded from MOSDAC website
(http://www.mosdac.gov.in/). These data were recorded by
AWSs (Automatic Weather Stations) installed at different
locations by NESAC (North East Space Application Centre).
The name, latitude, longitude, and altitude of these stations are
given in the Table 1 and locations of these stations are shown
in Fig. 1. As it can be seen from Table 1, the data conditions
for both the stations of NEEPCO are very poor and unusable.
It was therefore decided to exclude these two stations from
further calculations and the study was carried out with the
remaining 16 stations.

Determination of Temperature Lapse Rate

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Description of Study Area
The state of Arunachal Pradesh is situated between 26 30' and
29 28' N latitudes and 91 25' to 97 24' E longitudes. It covers
an area of 83,700 sq. km. The state is bounded by China and
Tibet in the north, Assam in the south, in the east by Myanmar
and Nagaland, and in the west by Bhutan. The area of
Arunachal Pradesh can be broadly divided into four distinct
physiographic regions:
1.

2.

The greater Himalayas with snow clapped mountains

with altitudes rising up to 5,500 m above mean sea
level,

Reduction of air temperature with altitude was estimated by

simple linear regression in Arunachal Pradesh for maximum,
minimum and mean monthly temperatures. In this study,
sixteen sites with different elevations (Table 1) were analyzed
to compute the temperature lapse rates. Carrega (1995) and
Bisci et al. (1989) suggested the use of multiple regression
analysis to model temperature variations using both altitude
and local topography. However, multiple regression analysis
requires the knowledge of detailed characteristics for each
weather station, such as its absolute altitude above sea level,
the relative altitude above a local base level, the slope,
exposure, and distance from sea. Unfortunately, such detailed

Table 1: Stations considered in this study

Sl.
No.

Station Name

Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, Data Starts

N
E
m

Data Ends

1. Anini

28.79

95.89

2068

01-10-2008

18-09-2012

2. Basar

27.98

94.70

578

28-03-2008

18-10-2012

3. Bomdila

27.26

92.42

2217

31-01-2008

28-12-2012

4. Daporijo

27.99

94.22

600

14-03-2008

01-11-2011

5. Itanagar

27.07

93.59

440

11-03-2008

20-04-2012

6. Jang

27.55

92.02

3417

01-01-2008

31-03-2010

7. Khonsa

27.19

95.47

131

22-03-2008

20-10-2012

Remarks

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J. Indian Water Resour. Soc., Vol. 34, No. 3, July, 2014

8. Koloriang

27.87

93.35

1040

30-04-2009

21-03-2012

9. Namsai

27.67

95.86

140

26-11-2007

07-07-2012

10. NEEPCO (Mengio)

27.51

93.54

618

20-12-2010

31-12-2010 Only 12 days

11. NEEPCO (L. Subansiri)

27.40

93.74

618

22-12-2010

31-12-2010 Only 10 days

12. Pasighat

28.07

95.34

153

25-03-2008

20-12-2012

13. Roing

28.14

95.83

914

27-09-2008

18-07-2011

14. Seppa

27.32

93.00

363

09-04-2008

10-12-2010

15. Tawang

27.59

91.87

3048

03-12-2007

31-12-2012

16. Teju

27.92

96.17

185

19-03-2008

25-05-2012

17. Yingkiong

28.64

95.02

200

10-03-2008

23-09-2011

18. Ziro

27.56

93.80

1688

26-11-2007

31-12-2010

Fig. 1: Stations considered in this study.

parameters were not available for the weather stations of
Arunachal Pradesh. Only topographic description was easily
available, so the simple regression analysis technique was used
here (Dougudroit and deSaintignon 1970).
Linear regression models were developed to obtain series of
linear equations for maximum, minimum and mean
temperatures for different months as below (Rolland, 2003):

Tij = ( Aij ) Altitude + Bij

(1)

Where,
Tij = air temperature (C) modeled by the equation;
Aij = lapse rate (for temperature parameter i, and month j) [C
(100 m)-1];
Bij = temperature at sea level (C at 0 m altitude);
Altitude = elevation above sea level, 102 m;

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J. Indian Water Resour. Soc., Vol. 34, No. 3, July, 2014

i = type of temperature index (maximum, minimum, or mean

temperature);
j = month index (from Jan to Dec and whole year; 12+1 cases).

Performance Criteria

The correlation coefficient (R2) is estimated using the

following equation:

R2 =

( Altitude Altitude ) (T T )
n

i =1

( Altitude Altitude ) (T T )
n

i =1

i =1

(2)

where,

n = number of observations.
For a perfect correlation, the value of R2 is 1.0, i.e., when the
temperature values correlate perfectly with the altitude. A
lower value (close to 0) of R2 indicates poor correlation.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Monthly Variation in Temperature Lapse Rate
From linear regression models, it has been observed that
monthly lapse rate (A) varies from 0.320.56, 0.440.54, and
0.360.52 C (100 m)-1 for maximum, minimum, and mean
temperatures respectively (Table 2). The annual lapse rate
values are 0.464, 0.476 and 0.455 C (100 m)-1 for maximum,
minimum and mean temperatures respectively (Figs. 2-4).

Table 2: Monthly variation of lapse rate (A) for maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures
Month

Amax(C(100m)-1)

Amin(C(100m)-1)

Amean(C(100m)-1)

1.

January

0.32

0.44

0.36

2.

February

0.47

0.49

0.47

3.

March

0.46

0.53

0.49

4.

April

0.49

0.49

0.49

5.

May

0.51

0.50

0.50

6.

June

0.48

0.45

0.46

7.

July

0.49

0.44

0.46

8.

August

0.53

0.46

0.48

9.

September

0.56

0.51

0.52

10.

October

0.49

0.54

0.50

11.

November

0.49

0.53

0.50

12.

December

0.46

0.50

0.46

13.

Annual

0.464

0.476

0.455

Sl. No.

Fig. 2: Linear regression model for yearly average maximum temperature.

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J. Indian Water Resour. Soc., Vol. 34, No. 3, July, 2014

Fig. 3: Linear regression model for yearly average minimum temperature.

Fig. 4: Linear regression model for yearly average mean temperature.

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J. Indian Water Resour. Soc., Vol. 34, No. 3, July, 2014

Fig. 5: Monthly and yearly lapse rates (A) for maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures.
Such lower values of lapse rates are in agreement with lapse
rate found by other studies in the nearby region, eastern Nepal
for example (Shilpakar et al., 2008) situated in the eastern
Central Himalaya. It can be seen that the annual lapse rate for
minimum temperature is highest and mean temperature being
the lowest. These figures also show that, in the elevation range
studied, it is not necessary to assume different lapse rates for
different elevation zones.
Fig. 5 illustrates that for maximum temperature, maximum
lapse rate is obtained in the month of September (0.56 C (100
m)-1) and minimum in the month of January (0.32 C (100 m)1
). Maximum and minimum lapse rates are obtained in the
month of October (0.54 C (100 m)-1) and January (0.44 C
(100 m)-1) for minimum temperature. For mean temperature,
maximum and minimum lapse rates are obtained in the month
of September (0.52 C (100 m)-1) and January (0.36 C (100
m)-1) as can be seen from. It can be inferred that maximum
lapse rate is obtained in the month of September and October
whereas minimum lapse rate is obtained in the month of
January for all the three temperature parameters.
It is observed that for maximum temperature, the lapse rate
starts to increase from January till May after which it shows a
decreasing trend from May to June and increases again from
June till it attains a peak value in the month of September after
which it continues to decrease till December. For minimum
temperature, lapse rate starts to increase from January till
March after which it shows a decreasing trend from March till
June and again increases from June and attains maximum
value in the month of October and then decreases till
December. For mean temperature, lapse rate increases from
January till May after which it decreases and become almost

constant in the month from June to July and continues to

increase till it attain a peak value in the month of September
after which it decreases till December.
From Fig. 5, it can be seen that, lapse rate for all the three
temperature parameters is almost same in the month of
February and April and the difference becomes substantial in
the period from July to September. It is observed that lapse
rate for mean temperature always lie between maximum and
minimum temperatures. In the period from May to June, lapse
rate for minimum and mean temperature is almost same. A
uniform decrease in lapse rate is observed in the month from
October to December for maximum and mean temperatures as
the two lines run almost parallel to each other. In the period
from October to April, lapse rate for minimum temperature is
greater than that of maximum temperature whereas a reverse
trend is observe in the period from April to September.
Lower temperature lapse rate is obtained in the period from
May to July which is quite expectable because of the effect of
the monsoon rain in the temperature which results in
minimizing temperature lapse rate for all the three temperature
parameters. The range of variation in lapse rate is lower in
minimum temperature comparing with those of maximum and
mean temperatures, maximum temperature being the highest
fluctuations in lapse rate. Lapse rate for minimum temperature
is nearly constant from April to May and from June to July.
For mean temperature, lapse rate is almost constant from June
to July and from October and November. This kind of constant
trend is also found for maximum temperature in the period
from October to November.

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J. Indian Water Resour. Soc., Vol. 34, No. 3, July, 2014

Monthly Variation in Temperature at Sea Level (B)

The temperature at sea level (B, in C) varies as 21.8333.38
C, 12.5526.29 C, and 16.4429.23 C for maximum,
minimum, and mean temperatures on monthly basis (Fig. 6 and
Table 3.). It attains maximum value in the month of August
and minimum value in the month of January for all the three
temperature parameters. The annual average values are 28.52,
20.28, and 23.80C for maximum, minimum and mean
temperatures respectively. It is clear from the figure that the

temperature at sea level continues to increase from the month

of January till it attains a maximum value in the month of
August after which it continues to decrease till December for
all the three temperature parameters.
It can also be seen from Fig. 6 that regression coefficient B
remains almost constant in the period from June to September
for minimum and mean temperatures as indicated by the
horizontal portion of the curve whereas this kind of pattern is
absent for maximum temperature. There is uniform increase or

Fig. 6: Monthly and yearly maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures at sea level (B).

Table 3: Monthly variation of maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures at sea level (B)

Sl. No.

Month

Bmax (C)

Bmin (C)

Bmean (C)

1.

January

21.83

12.55

16.44

2.

February

24.63

14.56

19.17

3.

March

25.89

17.69

21.42

4.

April

28.11

20.60

24.00

5.

May

31.29

23.40

26.93

6.

June

32.00

25.59

28.39

7.

July

32.14

26.18

28.81

8.

August

33.38

26.29

29.23

9.

September

33.34

26.02

29.00

10.

October

30.66

22.50

25.82

11.

November

27.25

17.77

21.87

12.

December

23.53

14.40

18.11

13.

Annual

28.52

20.28

23.80

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J. Indian Water Resour. Soc., Vol. 34, No. 3, July, 2014

decrease in temperature at sea level (B) with time as the curves

for maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures run almost
parallel to each other.
Monthly Variation in Coefficients of Determination (R2)
Coefficient of determination (R2) for monthly basis varies in
the range of 0.460.88, 0.730.89, and 0.700.89 for
maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures, respectively
(Fig. 7 and Table 4.). Its value is 0.85, 0.93, and 0.91 for
maximum, minimum and mean temperatures respectively for
annual basis.

Fig. 7 shows that correlation coefficients for maximum

temperature is inferior compared to minimum and mean
temperatures. R2 values for minimum and mean temperatures
are comparable. Correlation coefficients between temperature
and altitude are lower during winter, particularly in the months
of November, December and January. Hence, temperature
decrease with altitude presents a more scattered relationship
during these months, suggesting that local conditions may play
a greater role. More fog periods may enhance temperature
inversion effects, and slope warming may be affected by snow

Fig. 7: Coefficients of determination (R2) for developed regression models corresponding to monthly and yearly
maximum, minimum, and mean temperatures.
Table 4: Monthly variation of coefficient of determination (R2) for maximum, minimum, and mean temperature lapse
rate models
Month

R2max

R2min

R2mean

1.

January

0.46

0.73

0.70

2.

February

0.77

0.82

0.84

3.

March

0.75

0.85

0.85

4.

April

0.82

0.77

0.83

5.

May

0.86

0.85

0.87

6.

June

0.79

0.83

0.84

7.

July

0.83

0.85

0.87

8.

August

0.85

0.86

0.88

9.

September

0.88

0.84

0.88

10.

October

0.86

0.89

0.89

11.

November

0.61

0.86

0.80

12.
13.

December
Annual

0.63
0.85

0.78
0.93

0.79
0.91

Sl. No.

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J. Indian Water Resour. Soc., Vol. 34, No. 3, July, 2014

cover that changes soil albedo. In summer months, it can be

seen that altitude explains more than 80% variability in
temperature as there is a good correlation between the two
variables.

3.

Curves of lapse rate for maximum, minimum and

mean temperatures have two peaks or two decreasing
and increasing portions. From lower values at JuneJuly (monsoon months), it increases to higher values
at September-October (dry winter months) and then
from September-October, it again decreases to lower
values at December-January (because of fog, snowfall
along with rainfall). From lower value at DecemberJanuary, it again increases to higher value at MarchApril (dry summer month) and then from MarchApril, it decreases to lower values at June-July.

4.

Lapse rate for maximum, minimum and mean

temperatures were lower in months with high rainfall,
snow fall and fog (moist adiabatic lapse rate) and
higher in the dry months (dry adiabatic lapse rate).
Moist adiabatic lapse rates were obtained lower than
dry adiabatic lapse rate.

5.

The temperature at sea level varies as 21.8333.38

C, 12.5526.29 C, and 16.4429.23 C for
maximum, minimum and mean temperatures on
monthly basis. The annual values are 28.52, 20.28,
and 23.80C for the three temperature parameters
respectively. Obtained temperature at sea level values
for twelve months can be used for determination of
temperature at different elevation in the same region.

6.

The temperature at sea level continues to increase

from the month of January till it attains a maximum
value in the month of August after which it continues
to decrease till January for all the three temperature
parameters.

7.

In summer months, there is a good correlation

between temperature and altitude. But correlation is
lower during winter, particularly in the months of
November, December and January for maximum
temperature. Local conditions may play a greater role
behind this. More fog periods may enhance
temperature inversion effects, and slope warming may
be affected by snow cover that changes soil albedo.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The atmospheric lapse rate is the change in temperature with
altitude. It is affected by various factors such as precipitation,
location, time, amount of water vapour present in the air and so
on. In lower elevation range, temperature follows moist
adiabatic lapse rate and dry adiabatic lapse rate in higher
elevation. It has broad application in many fields like
vegetation, determination of the form of precipitation, runoffcomputation etc. Despite their broad application weather
stations for measuring air temperature are very limited in
mountainous region, especially at high elevation or in
uninhabited areas of Arunachal Pradesh of India. Therefore
extrapolation/interpolation of spare data over large distance is
required for obtaining temperatures values at gagged location.
This study was taken up to develop relationships between air
temperature and altitude and to determine seasonal variation of
temperature lapse rate in Arunachal Himalaya.
In the present study, reduction of air temperature with altitude
was estimated by simple linear regression in Arunachal
Pradesh for maximum, minimum and mean monthly
temperatures. In this study, sixteen sites with different
elevations were analyzed to compute the temperature lapse
rates. The use of multiple regression analysis to model
temperature variations using both altitude and local topography
was not used as only topographic description was easily
available. Thus simple linear regression model was used.
In this study, it was observed that in Arunachal Himalaya,
lapse rate for all the three temperature parameters is almost
same in the month of February and April and the difference
becomes substantial in the period from July to September. It is
observed that lapse rate for mean temperature always lie
between maximum and minimum temperatures. In the period
from May to June, lapse rate for minimum and mean
temperature is almost same. A uniform decrease in lapse rate is
observed in the month from October to December for
maximum and mean temperatures. In the period from October
to April, lapse rate for minimum temperature is greater than
that of maximum temperature whereas a reverse trend is
observe in the period from April to September.

REFERENCES
1.

Bisci. C., Cellini, M., Farabollini, P. and Pittori, C.

1989. Le gradient thermique dans les Marches
mridionales (Italie Centrale), Proc. Actes du
Colloque de Pavia, Italy, Vol. 2, Association
Internationale de Climatologie: 2733.

2.

Bolstad, P.V., Swift, L., Collins, F. and Rginiere, R.F.

1998. Measured and predicted air temperatures at
basin to regional scales in the southern Appalachian
Mountains, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 91:
161176.

3.

Carrega, P. 1995. A method for the reconstruction of

mountain air temperatures with automatic cartographic
applications, Theor. Appl. Climatol., 52: 6984.

4.

Dougudroit, A. and deSaintignon, M.F. 1970.

Mthodedtudede la dcroissance des tempratures
en montagne de latitude moyenne, Exemple des
Alpesfrancaises du Sud. Rev. Geogr. Alp., 58: 453
472.

Following specific conclusions can be drawn from this study:

1.

2.

In Arunachal Himalayan region, monthly near surface

lapse rate varies from 0.320.56, 0.440.54, and
0.360.52 C (100 m)-1 for maximum, minimum, and
mean temperatures respectively. The annual lapse rate
values are 0.464, 0.476, and 0.455 C (100 m)-1 for
the three temperature parameters, respectively.
Monthly lapse rate values can be used for
interpolation and extrapolation of temperature at
different elevation locations in the same region.
Monthly and annual near-surface temperature lapse
rates for maximum, minimum and mean temperatures
are lower than free atmosphere temperature lapse rate
(i.e., 0.6 to 0.7 C (100 m)-1) as supported by several
other studies.

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J. Indian Water Resour. Soc., Vol. 34, No. 3, July, 2014

5.

Greuell, W. and Bhm, R. 1998. 2m temperature

along melting midlatitudes glaciers, and implications
for the sensitivity of mass balance to variations in
temperature, Journal of Glaciology, 44(146): 920.

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