The variability and trends in rainfall fluctuations has received a wide spread attention from meteorologists and hydrologists in India during past several years because of its relevance to climate change. The annual and monsoon extreme rainfall series above 100 mm well distributed over Punjab covering 43 years rainfall data from 1970-2012 were analyzed for trend analysis of rainfall events, their frequency of occurrence and percent contribution in total rainfall on decadal, seasonal and monthly basis. The annual rainfall of Ludhiana was higher during 1981-2000 than during 1971-80 and 2000-2010. It has been found that annual rainfall received at Ludhiana is free from trends but extreme rainfall events have increased from 1971 onwards as these were to the tune of 8, 13, 14 and 15 during 1971-80, 1981-90, 1991-2000 and 2001-12, respectively. The recent decade i.e. 2000-2012 showed much variation in rainfall extremes with highest rainfall event in 2011 and lowest during 2002. Within the monsoon season, the wettest month July showed negative deviation while September showed positive deviation in rainfall from normal rainfall during the recent decade i.e. 2000-2012. A significant temporal variation in seasonal precipitation has been directly related to a change of the amount of precipitation falling during the heavy and extreme precipitation events.
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