Description of long-term climate data in Eastern and Southeastern Ethiopia

Abstract

This article presents long-term analyzed climate data from nine weather stations in eastern and southeastern parts of Ethiopia. At the outset of this data process, unrefined meteorological data was obtained from National Meteorological Agency (NMA) of Ethiopia for the analysis. The analyzed data in this article shows patterns of rainfall variability, frequency of drought years, seasonal concentration of precipitation and temperature conditions. As issues related to climate conditions are very intricate, different techniques and indices were applied to analyze and refine the data. The analysis reveals that eastern and southeastern parts Ethiopia are severely affected by recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall, and high and increasing temperature conditions. The long-term (1981–2009) mean annual total rainfall had been fluctuating between about 850 mm and 1350 mm. Most stations receive maximum rainfall in summer (June, July and August) except Gode which gets over 50% of its rainfall in spring season (March, April and May). The inter-annual rainfall difference was found to be very high. The Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) is greater than 11 for all the stations showing that rainfall is concentrated in a few months. PCI is extremely high (greater than 20) for very dry stations such as Gode. Food production and consumer price index were found to be fluctuating with rainfall patters.

Keywords

• Rainfall variability
• Drought years
• Seasonal precipitation concentration
• Temperature
• Ethiopia