TITLE:
Hydro-meteorological characteristics of Chitral River basin at the peak of the Hindukush range
AUTHORS:
Salma Khalid, Shafiq Ur Rehman, Syed Mushtaq Ali Shah, Alia Naz, Beena Saeed, Sadia Alam, Farman Ali, Hasina Gul
KEYWORDS:
Mean Maximum Temperature; Mean Rainfall; River Discharge; Climate Change; Chitral
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Science,
Vol.5 No.9,
August
28,
2013
ABSTRACT: This paper presents the impact of mean maximum temperature on Chitral river basin situated at Chitral district and high altitude (>6000 m) peaks of the Hindukush range under changing climate in Pakistan. The analysis of Chitral River as one of the tributary of Kabul River—the second largest river of Pakistan—revealed that change in temperature has a profound influence on the snow/glacial melt in comparison to the mean monthly rainfall. This is because the studied river is faded by the snow and glacial melt and receives a lot of snowfall from winter (DecFeb) to pre-monsoon (April-May). In monsoon period (Jul-Sep), 30% of the time the discharge rate remains above the mean while 60% of the time the discharge is less than the mean in the pre-monsoon (April-May) period. It means that 10% of the time the discharge is in reach of 300% to 900% of the mean flow, showing a rise in water yield and river discharge rate due to increase in mean monthly maximum temperature. Due to this significant increase (p