Spatial and temporal climate variability and change in the bilate catchment, central Rift Valley lakes region, Ethiopia.

The paper explores spatial and temporal variability of rainfall and temperature in Bilate catchment based on monthly data of 11 meteorological stations. Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) and Pearson product moment correlation were used to estimate monthly concentrations and associations between annual and seasonal rainfall. Similar methods were used to analyze the association of ENSO with rainfall variability using Eastern Equatorial Pacific (Niño 3.4) data, Sea Surface Temperature (SST), and Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). Rainfall and temperature series were tested for trends using the Mann–Kendall test. Rainfall in the catchment is highly seasonal and concentrated in Kiremt (June–September), followed by Belg (February–May). Belg rainfall was highly variable. Annual rainfall was relatively stable in the upper catchment and variable in the lower catchment. PCI values are expected to increase as annual and seasonal rainfall decrease. The middle catchment had significant negative trends in annual and Belg rainfall. November–March SST is strongly associated with Belg rainfall variations throughout the catchment, and ~49% of the variability can be explained by Equatorial Pacific SST. Annual and seasonal temperature significantly increased in middle and lower parts of the catchment in the past 30 years. Warming was ~0.05°C/yr to 0.17°C/yr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]