Impact of Lockdown Measures during COVID-19 Pandemic on Water Vapors in Subtemperate and Subtropical Zones of Jammu Region, Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory, India

Aim: To evaluate the effect of lockdown amid COVID 19 pandemic on water vapors in atmosphere under subtemperate and subtropical zones of Jammu region.

Methodology: To study the variation in atmospheric chemistry, the data was analyzed on fortnightly basis in order to assess the water vapor presence in the atmosphere during complete lockdown, i.e. from 24th March to 17th May 2020. The data of Temperature and Relative Humidity were recorded from Agrometeorological Observatory situated at respective locations under study. The water vapor attributing parameters were calculated by adopting different formulae.

Results: The analysis of weather data was done by adopting different statistical techniques and it was found that ambient temperature was below normal with a deviation of -5.99% and -3.69% under subtropical and subtemperate zone. With the downshifting pattern observed in temperature, the density of air also decreased with deviation of -0.29% in subtropical zone and -0.46 % in subtemperate zone. The relative humidity, mixing ratio and dew point temperature under subtropical conditions were increased by 8.19, 1.03 and 1.61% respectively, while under subtemperate zone the parameters increased by 3.98, 4.51 and 10.3% respectively. The saturated mixing ratio, enthalpy and absolute humidity were deviated by -4.53%, -5.45 and -1.50% in subtropical zone and 5.94, 6.62 and 8.28 % in subtemperate zone.

Conclusion: Variable significant patterns were observed for each parameter and thus it can be concluded that lockdown had a plausible impact on all humidity or water vapor attributes.