## 4 Results  
### Relations and Similarity Analysis for AT, RH, SR, BP, PR, and SD  
We computed relations (r and AAE) and similarity (PS) measure for seven groups of stations for the parameters, such as AT, RH, SR, BP, PR, and SD. In this analysis, values of r from 0 to 0.3, 0.3 to 0.7, 0.7 to 1.0 indicate weak, moderate, and strong linear relationships, respectively [40]. In addition, the values of AAE close to zero are considered as no error between two datasets [10]. For similarity, we assumed the value of PS with a minimum of 75% in determining the acceptable likeliness between station-pairs [22; 23]. The computed values of r, AAE, and PS for each station-pair for the seven groups (G1-G7) are shown in Tables 2-4. The results of relations and similarity analysis for determining the minimum number of required station/s in each group for a given meteorological parameter are presented in the following sub-sections. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \cline{3-14}  & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \cline{3-14}  & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{AT} & n & 2076 & 1112 & 1112 & 32,736 & 1035 & 1607 & 30,758 & 33,282 & 29,601 & 32,783 \\  & AAE (\({}^{\circ}\)C) & 1.16 & 2.49 & 1.82 & 1.31 & 1.82 & 3.92 & 4.27 & 2.65 & 2.44 & 2.36 \\  & r & 1.00 & 0.99 & 0.99 & 0.99 & 0.99 & 0.68 & 0.72 & 0.97 & 0.97 & 0.98 \\  & PS (\%) & 53.76 & 22.75 & 32.55 & 55.97 & 29.08 & 28.44 & 24.18 & 26.47 & 28.35 & 29.47 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{RH} & n & 2076 & 1112 & 1112 & 32,737 & 1035 & 1711 & 33,064 & 33,284 & 29,601 & 32,327 \\  & AAE (\%) & 5.76 & 5.04 & 5.08 & 4.81 & 8.16 & 6.66 & 9.68 & 9.57 & 9.39 & 9.47 \\  & r & 0.88 & 0.93 & 0.88 & 0.93 & 0.69 & 0.81 & 0.74 & 0.77 & 0.78 & 0.78 \\  & PS (\%) & **83.00** & **87.68** & **87.32** & **86.87** & 73.33 & **79.02** & 68.34 & 66.36 & 67.1 & 66.71 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{SR} & n & 2076 & 1112 & 1112 & 21,511 & 1035 & 1710 & 25,402 & - & - & - \\  & AAE & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \cline{3-14}  & (W/m\({}^{2}\)) & 16.41 & 29.74 & 37.18 & 59.77 & 24.69 & 22.71 & 63.39 & - & - & - \\  & r & 0.97 & 0.88 & 0.85 & 0.92 & 0.93 & 0.93 & 0.85 & - & - & - \\  & PS (\%) & 32.38 & 24.85 & 21.12 & 30.81 & 26.98 & 32.12 & 27.30 & - & - & - \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{BP} & n & - & - & 1112 & - & - & - & - & - & - & - \\  & AAE (kPa) & - & - & 1.82 & - & - & - & - & - & - & - \\  & r & - & - & 0.98 & - & - & - & - & - & - & - \\  & PS (\%) & - & - & 0.00 & - & - & - & - & - & - & - \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{PR} & n & 2002 & - & - & - & - & 1710 & - & - & - & - \\  & AAE (mm) & 0.92 & - & - & - & - & 22.71 & - & - & - & - \\  & r & 0.69 & - & - & - & - & 0.93 & - & - & - & - \\  & PS (\%) & 8.85 & - & - & - & - & 32.12 & - & - & - & - \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{SD} & n & 2076 & - & - & - & - & - & - & - & - & - \\  & AAE (cm) & 2.83 & - & - & - & - & - & - & - & - & - \\ \cline{1-1}  & r & 0.95 & - & - & - & - & - & - & - & - & - \\ \cline{1-1}  & PS (\%) & **76.40** & - & - & - & - & - & - & - & - & - \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Analysis of similarity and relations among the meteorological parameters for G1, G2, and G4 groups. The sign ‘-’ means the measurements were unavailable for comparison, and highlighted bold values mean strong PS with \(\geq\)75%. G1, G2, and G4 Groups: The outcomes of relation and similarity analysis are presented in Table 2 for G1 (i.e., C1, C4, and JE323), G2 (i.e., JP316 and JE316), and G4 (i.e., C5, JP201, and JP213) for the relevant weather parameters, such as AT, PR, RH, SR, BP, and SD. In the case of AT, strong relations, such as r-values (\(\geq\)0.97) and AAE (in the range 1.16 and 2.65 \({}^{\circ}\)C), and unacceptable similarities, such as PS value (\(\leq\)55.97%), were observed for 8 out of 10 station pairs across all the groups. Regarding RH, strong relations, such as r-values (\(\geq\)0.74) and AAE (\(\leq\)9.68%), were found for all the station pairs.