A Recent Study of the Relationship between the Precipitation Rate over Saudi Arabia in the Fall and Climatic Indices

Abstract

This paper presents a recent study of the relationship between precipitation rate (PR) over Saudi Arabia (SA) within the months of the fall season and climatic indices. The fall monthly PR data spanning the study period between 1948 and 2018 is considered. In addition, the monthly climatic index records (arctic oscillation (AO), global surface air temperature (GSAT), multivariate ENSO index (MEI), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, Nino 3.4 index, and Southern Oscillation Index (SOI)) for the fall months were also considered. The statistical trend, anomaly, and correlation analyses are applied in this study. The results reveal that the sweeping changes in PR show generally positive trends throughout the fall seasons of the past decades. Moreover, the climatic indices have an effect on the PR over SA within the fall months and season. During the study period, the most substantial relationship recorded, with an inverse correlation of −0.7, is between the PR over SA and the climatic index of GSAT for September and October. Moreover, there is a clear correlation of +0.5 between the PR over SA and the ENSO and Nino 3.4 index for October and November.