Intraseasonal wind anomalies related to wet and dry spells during the “long” and “short” rainy seasons in Kenya

Summary The largest part of Kenya exhibits two major rainy seasons, the March–May «long rains» and the October–December «short rains», both related to the passage of the ITCZ, but differing in the amount of rainfall recorded and its interannual variability. In order to investigate whether these differences also apply at intraseasonal time-scales, daily rainfall data for the peak month of each rainy season (April and November) were collected for 7 consecutive years (1982–1988). The network comprises 68 stations, from which a classification of the spatial patterns of daily rainfall anomalies has been performed. Wind anomalies corresponding to the various rainfall types and to specific regional rainfall departures were determined using four pilot balloon stations and one radiosonde station. They revealed that there exist significant differences between upper-air circulation anomalies exhibited in the «long» and «short» rainy seasons, especially as far as rain spells in the Eastern Highlands are concerned. In that region, easterly anomalies in the «short rains» period are associated with an increase in rainfall. During the «long rains», enhanced easterlies more generally coincide with an overall drop of convection in the country. In Western Kenya, wet conditions are more systematically associated to westerly wind anomalies.With 12 Figures     

近50年广东省分级降水的时空分布特征及其变化趋势的研究

利用广东省86个常规气象观测站1961—2010年的逐日降水资料,分析近50年广东省降水气候特征,探讨不同等级降水空间分布及随时间变化特征。结果表明:广东省降水丰沛,年均降水量多为1 500~2 000 mm;降水气候特征的区域差异较大,不同区域降水量与降水日数分布差异显著;各月的降水日数差异没有降水量月分布的差异明显,非汛期的日降水量较小,而汛期降水日数多且日降水量大;小雨日和中雨日的区域差异小,大雨日、暴雨日、大暴雨日的大值中心主要集中在广东省的三大暴雨中心地区 (清远中心、阳江中心、海陆丰中心),雨日量级分布大致由北向南逐渐增强,且随着降水等级的增加降雨日数迅速减少;小雨、中雨和大雨的降水贡献率均由粤北地区向沿海地区递减,暴雨和大暴雨的贡献率由粤北向沿海递增;小雨日数显著减少、大雨以上日数略有增多,总降水日数也呈减少趋势;小雨和中雨的贡献率呈减少趋势,大雨以上贡献率增多,使年均降水量呈增多趋势。      

Rain-based factors of high agricultural impacts over Senegal. Part I: integration of local to sub-regional trends and variability

The evolution of seasonal cycle and interannual rainfall, the number of rainy days and daily rainfall types, dry spells frequency of occurrence, onset/cessation/length of rainy season, sowing dates, and the duration of the cropping period, are investigated at local (individual sites) and sub-regional scales (four different rainfall zones) using daily records of station data (83 sites) over Senegal. In the limits of a case study, these analyses complement and update previous studies conducted in the extreme Western Sahel (11?C16° N and 20° W?C10° E). The results unveil noticeable evolution of some of these rain-based factors in the recent periods as compared to the previous dry years. In the regions recording less than 800?mm/year (Sudan and Sahel sub-regions), the positive and statistically significant trends of rainfall amount are associated with new features of increasing frequency of short dry spell category, increasing number of some classes of extreme daily rainfall amounts and shifts in the peak number of rainy days. At sub-regional scales, the starting years (or change points) the magnitude and the signs of the new trends are unevenly distributed in the period post-1990. Earlier and higher amplitude changes are found at local scales and not less than one third of the sites in each sub-regional network are significantly affected. The extreme Southern sub-region exhibits no significant changes. Statistically significant trends are not observed on daily rain records ??10?mm, onset/cessation dates, successful sowing dates, rainy season length, cropping period, medium and extreme dry spell categories. Rather, some of these factors such as the successful sowing date and the cropping season length exhibit significant variability. The onset (cessation) dates of the rainy season are followed (preceded) by extreme dry spell episodes. In the perspectives of climate impact assessments on the local agriculture a sub-regional periodic synopsis of the major rain-based factors of interest to agricultural applications are provided at the end the paper. They document some important internal variability patterns to reckon with in a multi-decadal work over the 1950?C2008 period for this region.     

Oceanic influence on the sub-seasonal to interannual timing and frequency of extreme dry spells over the West African Sahel

Intra-seasonal drought episodes (extreme dry spells) are strongly linked to crop yield loss in the West African Sahel, especially when they occur at crop critical stages such as juvenile or flowering stage. This paper seeks to expose potentially predictable features in the sub-seasonal to inter-annual occurrence of “extreme dry spells” (extDS) through their links to sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs). We consider two kinds of extreme dry spells: more than 2 weeks of consecutive dry days following a rain event (often found at the beginning of the rainy season, after the first rain events) and more than a week (observed towards the end of the rainy season, before the last rain events). We extract dry spells from daily rainfall data at 43 stations (31 stations in Senegal over 1950–2010 and 12 stations in Niger over 1960–2000) to identify the intra-seasonal distribution of extDS and their significant correlation with local rainfall deficits. Seasonality of distribution and high spatial coherence are found in the timing and the frequency of occurrence of extDS in different rainfall regions over Niger and Senegal. The correlation between the regional occurrence index (ROI), necessary to capture the spatial extent of extDS, and observed global sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) sheds light on the influence of the external factors on the decadal, interannual and sub-seasonal variability of extDS over the West African Sahel. When the global tropics and the Atlantic are warmer than normal, more coherent and delayed June–July extDS are observed after onset of rainy season, as well as early cessation type in August–September. When the Indo-Pacific is cooler and the equatorial south Atlantic is warmer than normal little to no extDS are found in the onset sub-period of the monsoon season. Mostly late types of extDS occur in October as a result of late cessation. These results show potential predictability of extreme dry spells after onset and before cessation of monsoonal rain based on global patterns of sea surface temperature anomalies.     

Evaluation of TMPA satellite-based research and real-time rainfall estimates during six tropical-related heavy rainfall events over Louisiana, USA

This study focuses on the evaluation of 3-hourly 0.25° × 0.25° satellite-based rainfall estimates produced by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA). The evaluation is performed during six heavy rainfall events that were generated by tropical storms passing over Louisiana, United States. Two surface-based rainfall datasets from gauge and radar observations are used as a ground reference for evaluating the real-time (RT) version of the TMPA product and the post-real-time bias adjusted research version. The evaluation analysis is performed at the native temporal and spatial scales of the TMPA products, 3-hourly and 0.25° × 0.25°. Several graphical and statistical techniques are applied to characterize the deviation of the TMPA estimates from the reference datasets. Both versions of the TMPA products track reasonably well the temporal evolution and fluctuations of surface rainfall during the analyzed storms with moderate to high correlation values of 0.5–0.8. The TMPA estimates reported reasonable levels of rainfall detection especially when light rainfall rates are excluded. On a storm scale, the TMPA products are characterized by varying degrees of bias which was mostly within ± 25% and ± 50% for the research and RT products, respectively. Analysis of the error distribution indicated that, on average, the TMPA products tend to overestimate small rain rates and underestimate large rain rates. Compared to the real-time estimates, the research product shows significant improvement in the overall and conditional bias, and in the correlation coefficients, with slight deterioration in the probability of detecting rainfall occurrences. A fair agreement in terms of reproducing the tail of the distribution of rain rates (i.e., probability of surface rainfall exceeding certain thresholds) was observed especially for the RT estimates. Despite the apparent differences with surface rainfall estimates, the results reported in this study highlight the TMPA potential as a valuable resource of high-resolution rainfall information over many areas in the world that lack capabilities for monitoring landfalling tropical storms.     

An evaluation of the CORDEX regional climate models in simulating future rainfall and extreme events over Mzingwane catchment,Zimbabwe

The study evaluated CORDEX RCMs’ ability to project future rainfall and extreme events in the Mzingwane catchment using an ensemble average of three RCMs (RCA4, REMO2009 and CRCM5). Model validation employed the statistical mean and Pearson correlation, while trends in projected rainfall and number of rainy days were computed using the Mann-Kendall trend test and the magnitudes of trends were determined by Sen’s slope estimator. Temporal and spatial distribution of future extreme dryness and wetness was established by using the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI). The results show that RCMs adequately represented annual and inter-annual rainfall variability and the ensemble average outperformed individual models. Trend results for the projected rainfall suggest a significant decreasing trend in future rainfall (2016–2100) for all stations at p < 0.05. In addition, a general decreasing trend in the number of rainy days is projected for future climate, although the significance and magnitude varied with station location. Model results suggest an increased occurrence of future extreme events, particularly towards the end of the century. The findings are important for developing proactive sustainable strategies for future climate change adaption and mitigation.     

Scaling of tropical rainfall as observed by TRMM precipitation radar

We used a three-year (1998–2000) dataset of TRMM Precipitation Radar observations to investigate the scaling properties of spatial rainfall fields. This dataset allows consideration of spatial scales ranging from about 4.3 km to 138 km and short temporal scales corresponding to the sensor overpasses. The focus is on the marginal spatial moment scaling, which allows estimation of the scaling parameters from a single scene of data. Here we present a global perspective of the scaling properties of tropical rainfall in terms of its spatial variability, atmospheric forcing, predictability, and applicability. Our results reveal the following: 1) the scaling parameters exhibit strong variability associated with land/ocean contrast and mean precipitation at the synoptic scale; 2) there exists a one-to-one relationship between the scaling parameters and the large-scale spatial average rain rate of a universal functional form; 3) the majority of the scenes are consistent with the hypothesis of scale invariance at the moment orders of 0 and 2; 4) relatively there are more scale-invariant rain scenes over land than over ocean; and 5) for the scenes that are non-scale-invariant, deviation from scale-invariance mainly arises from the increasingly intermittent behavior of rainfall as spatial scale decreases. These results have important implications for the development and calibration of downscaling procedures designed to reproduce rainfall properties at different spatial scales and lead to a better understanding of the nature of tropical rainfall at various spatial resolutions.     

贵州秋绵雨的气候特征及异常成因浅析

利用贵州省83个气象观测站点1961—2021年逐日降水数据,定义贵州省单站秋绵雨过程,构建了综合考虑秋绵雨最长时段日数、其余时段累计日数、9—10月雨量占年雨量比例的秋绵雨综合强度评估指标,通过小波分析、突变分析、合成分析、相关分析等方法,对贵州秋绵雨的时空特征及其与北半球500 hPa高度场、全球海温场的关系进行了研究。结果表明：秋绵雨指数大致呈东北—西南向的条带状分布,自西北部向东南部递减;秋绵雨指数年际波动大,近61 a来以0.064/10a的速率呈下降趋势;秋绵雨指数EOF分析第1模态空间型表现为全区一致分布型,是贵州秋绵雨气候变率的主模态;贵州省秋绵雨存在2~4 a的年际变化周期;1997年为贵州秋绵雨突变点;重秋绵雨年500 hPa高度场欧亚大陆上空位势高度距平呈“北正南负”的距平分布,有利于北方冷空气南下,850 hPa距平风场南海及其周边地区为显著的反气旋性环流,加强了西南暖湿气流的输送;ENSO对贵州秋绵雨的影响是非对称的,当前期8月热带东太平洋偏暖、热带西太平洋偏冷时,对应El Niño年贵州秋绵雨偏重。     

Long-term rainfall characteristics in the Mzingwane catchment of south-western Zimbabwe

Rainfall characteristics during the annual rainy season are explored for the Mzingwane catchment of south-western Zimbabwe, for both historic period (1886–1906) and more recent times (1950–2015), based on available daily and monthly precipitation series. Annual and seasonal rainfall trends are determined using the modified Mann-Kendall test, magnitude of trends test and Sen’s slope estimator. Rainfall variability is quantified using the coefficient of variation (CV), precipitation concentration index (PCI) and standard precipitation index (SPI). Results suggest that contemporary mean annual rainfall may not have changed from that measured during the historic period of 1886–1906. However, the number of rainy days (≥ 1 mm) has decreased by 34%, thus suggesting much more concentrated and increased rainfall intensity. A notable shift in both the onset and cessation dates of the rainy season is recorded, particularly during the twenty-first century, which has resulted in a significantly reduced (p < 0.05) length of the rainy season. The combination of a reduced number of rainy days (≥ 1 mm) and a shortened rainy season suggests that long intra-season dry spells have become more common through time and have considerable negative consequences for agriculture and wetland ecosystem in the region. In addition, high spatio-temporal rainfall variability and seasonal PCI values indicate strong seasonality in the rainy season. Based on the SPI results, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) strongly influences rainfall variability. The results further suggest high uncertainty in rain season characteristics, which requires effective planning for water needs.     

Spatial analysis of daily rainfall intensity and concentration index in Peninsular Malaysia

This study presents the spatial analysis of daily rainfall intensity and concentration index over Peninsular Malaysia. Daily rainfall data from 50 rainfall stations are used in this study. Due to the limited number of stations, the geostatistical method of ordinary kriging is used to compute the values of daily rainfall concentration and intensity and to map their spatial distribution. The resultant analysis of rainfall concentration indicated that the distribution of daily rainfall is more regular over the west, northwest and southwest regions compared to the east. Large areas of the eastern Peninsula display an irregularity in distribution of daily rainfall. In terms of number of rainy days, analysis of daily rainfall confirms that a large number of rainy days across the Peninsula arise from low-intensity events but only contribute a small percentage of total rain. On the other hand, a low frequency of rainy days with high-intensity events contributes the largest percentage of total rain. The results indicated that the total rain in eastern areas is mainly contributed by the high-intensity events. This finding explains the occurrence of a large number of floods and soil erosions in these areas. Therefore, precautionary measures should be taken earlier to prevent any massive destruction of property and loss of life due to the hazards. These research findings are of considerable importance in providing enough information to water resource management, climatologists and agriculturists as well as hydrologists for planning their activities and modelling processes.     

Spatial prediction model and its application to chemistry of atmospheric precipitation in Jordan

This study is concerned with the spatial variability of some wet atmospheric precipitation parameters such as; pH, conductivity (EC). The study also depicts the spatial variability of some ions (cations and anions) of atmospheric precipitation in Jordan such as, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺ and K⁺, HCO₃⁻, Cl⁻, NO₃⁻ and SO₄²⁻. The basis of the work is to establish a relationship through the cumulative semivariogram technique between the distance ratios and the spatial dependence structure of the chemical composition of atmospheric precipitation. All semivariogram models are constructed in this study in order to understand the behavior of the spatial distribution. The spatial distributions of rainwater parameters show differences from station to station which is expressed in terms of angle, where the larger the angle the weaker the correlation. The semivariogram (SV) models are constructed to show the variation of the rainfall chemistry in Jordan. The SV models show weak correlation between mountain and leeside mountain stations, i.e. mountain and desert stations. On the other hand, good correlations are observed when transferring from south to north of the country. The larger is the found angle, the weaker is the correlation. For most of the SV model the correlation is found to be very weak between desert and mountainous locality. The Standard Regional Dependence Factor (SRDF) is used for prediction of the distribution of rain fall parameters. It shows the relative error between observed and predicted values of rainwater parameters. The overall regional relative error between the observed and estimated concentrations remains less than 15%.     

How effective is the new generation of GPM satellite precipitation in characterizing the rainfall variability over Malaysia?

We investigated the potential of the new generation of satellite precipitation product from the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) to characterize the rainfall in Malaysia. Most satellite precipitation products have limited ability to precisely characterize the high dynamic rainfall variation that occurred at both time and scale in this humid tropical region due to the coarse grid size to meet the physical condition of the smaller land size, sub-continent and islands. Prior to the status quo, an improved satellite precipitation was required to accurately measure the rainfall and its distribution. Subsequently, the newly released of GPM precipitation product at half-hourly and 0.1° resolution served an opportunity to anticipate the aforementioned conflict. Nevertheless, related evidence was not found and therefore, this study made an initiative to fill the gap. A total of 843 rain gauges over east (Borneo) and west Malaysia (Peninsular) were used to evaluate the rainfall the GPM rainfall data. The assessment covered all critical rainy seasons which associated with Asian Monsoon including northeast (Nov. - Feb.), southwest (May - Aug.) and their subsequent inter-monsoon period (Mar. - Apr. & Sep. - Oct.). The ability of GPM to provide quantitative rainfall estimates and qualitative spatial rainfall patterns were analysed. Our results showed that the GPM had good capacity to depict the spatial rainfall patterns in less heterogeneous rainfall patterns (Spearman’s correlation, 0.591 to 0.891) compared to the clustered one (r = 0.368 to 0.721). Rainfall intensity and spatial heterogeneity that is largely driven by seasonal monsoon has significant influence on GPM ability to resolve local rainfall patterns. In quantitative rainfall estimation, large errors can be primarily associated with the rainfall intensity increment. 77% of the error variation can be explained through rainfall intensity particularly the high intensity (> 35 mm d^-1). A strong relationship between GPM rainfall and error was found from heavy (~35 mm d^-1) to violent rain (160 mm d^-1). The output of this study provides reference regarding the performance of GPM data for respective hydrology studies in this region.     

中国地区降水持续性的季节变化特征

本文利用我国588个气象站1969-2008年逐12小时的降水资料,分析了中国地区降水持续性的空间分布特征及其季节演变规律。分析结果表明,35°N以南,西部和东部年平均的降水平均持续时间较长,中部略短;35°N以北,西北和内蒙西部最短,东北地区北部略长。将降水事件按持续时间分类自南向北,东南地区、江淮和黄淮地区、东北和华北北部地区短时降水（持续一个时次,12小时）的降水量和降水频率占全年总降水的比例逐渐增加,持续性降水（持续3个时次及以上）的比例减少。降水平均持续时间随季节的变化基本能反映出江南春雨、江淮梅雨、东北和华北夏季雨季、关中盆地和汉水谷地的秋雨以及青藏高原地区和西南地区夏季雨季。同时,东南地区秋冬季节、江淮和黄淮地区10月上旬和西南地区10月下旬存在降水平均持续时间的峰值,与降水量的变化不一致,是由持续性降水频率的增加和短时降水频率的减少造成的。此外,东部三个区域降水平均持续时间的夏季季节内变化对应了季风雨带的“北跳和南撤”过程。     

Changes in rainfall regime over Burkina Faso under the climate change conditions simulated by 5 regional climate models

Sahelian rainfall has recorded a high variability during the last century with a significant decrease (more than 20 %) in the annual rainfall amount since 1970. Using a linear regression model, the fluctuations of the annual rainfall from the observations over Burkina Faso during 1961–2009 period are described through the changes in the characteristics of the rainy season. The methodology is then applied to simulated rainfall data produced by five regional climate models under A1B scenario over two periods: 1971–2000 as reference period and 2021–2050 as projection period. As found with other climate models, the projected change in annual rainfall for West Africa is very uncertain. However, the present study shows that some features of the impact of climate change on rainfall regime in the region are robust. The number of the low rainfall events (0.1–5 mm/d) is projected to decrease by 3 % and the number of strong rainfall events (>50 mm/d) is expected to increase by 15 % on average. In addition, the rainy season onset is projected by all models to be delayed by one week on average and a consensus exists on the lengthening of the dry spells at about 20 %. Furthermore, the simulated relationship between changed annual rainfall amounts and the number of rain days or their intensity varies strongly from one model to another and some changes do not correspond to what is observed for the rainfall variability over the last 50 years.     

Cloud bands over southern Africa: seasonality, contribution to rainfall variability and modulation by the MJO

Tropical-extratropical cloud band systems over southern Africa, known as tropical temperate troughs (TTTs), are known to contribute substantially to South African summer rainfall. This study performs a comprehensive assessment of the seasonal cycle and rainfall contribution of TTTs by using a novel object-based strategy that explicitly tracks these systems for their full life cycle. The methodology incorporates a simple assignment of station rainfall data to each event, thereby creating a database containing detailed rainfall characteristics for each TTT. This is used to explore the importance of TTTs for rain days and climatological rainfall totals in October–March. Average contributions range from 30 to 60 % with substantial spatial heterogeneity observed. TTT rainfall contributions over the Highveld and eastern escarpment are lower than expected. A short analysis of TTT rainfall variability indicates TTTs provide substantial, but not dominant, intraseasonal and interannual variability in station rainfall totals. TTTs are however responsible for a high proportion of heavy rainfall days. Of 52 extreme rainfall events in the 1979–1999 period, 30 are associated with these tropical-extratropical interactions. Cut-off lows were included in the evolution of 6 of these TTTs. The study concludes with an analysis of the question: does the Madden-Julian Oscillation influence the intensity of TTT rainfall over South Africa? Results suggest a weak but significant suppression (enhancement) of intensity during phase 1(6).     

Rainfall rate distribution in a local scale: The case of Barcelona city

Summary Convective rainfall rate distribution is not very uniform even at a local scale. In order to make an evaluation of it in the urban area of Barcelona, a dense rain gauge network has been stablished in this city. The gauges are of high resolution tilting bucket type. In this paper, preliminary results are presented. The distributions obtained show a strong variation of the rainfall rate for the several parts of the city. The intensity-duration curves for severe storms have been made in the various points of measure together with the areal reduction factors of rainfall. The analysis of raincell movement gives E-W as a predominant direction and a speed in the 3–12 m/s range.With 9 Figures     

华南前汛期暴雨气候特征的研究

利用华南地区26站1958-2000年逐日降水资料，对华南前汛期暴雨降水的气候特征进行了统计研究。结果表明，华南前汛期暴雨降水量和频次的变化趋势都呈略减少的特征，都有明显的年际、年代际变化的长期演变特征；华南的暴雨近50％集中发生在前汛期，其中又以福建与广东的西北部为甚，华南的西南部较小；华南前汛期的降水有近40％为暴雨，多年平均暴雨百分率的大值中心在广东沿海地区，最大可达44％，有两个小值中心，它们分别位于广西广东西部和福建，最小只有26％。     

横断山脉中西部降水的季节演变特征

利用台站观测逐日降水资料,对横断山脉中西部地区的降水季节演变特征进行了分析,发现该地区降水具有独特的季节变化特征:雨季开始早,从第10候前后降水开始迅速增加,至第19候前后就达到第1个峰值;雨季时间长,从第10候前后雨季开始,至第60候雨季结束,雨季持续长达8个月;多峰值特征明显,雨季先后经历3个降水峰值,分别在第19、35、55候前后.通过再分析资料对这一地区风场的季节变化进行分析发现,这些降水的季节演变特征与这一地区独特地形下风场季节演变密不可分.雨季开始早与第10候起低层西风、南风迅速加强,特别是西风加强有关;第2、3个降水峰值则与西南风,特小,降水主要受西风系统影响,与西风系统的季节变化密切相关;而第2、3个降水峰值分别发生在西太平洋副热带高压西伸、东退进程中,位势高度场东高西低,降水主要受西南风控制,并伴有南风辐合,与南风的季节变化相关.别是经向南风增强有关.对3个降水峰值时刻的环流背景进行了分析,第1个降水峰值发生时,位势高度东西方向水平差异