Recent climate change in the Arabian Peninsula: annual rainfall and temperature analysis of Saudi Arabia for 1978–2009

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The rainfall and temperature climatology over the Arabian Peninsula are analysed on an annual basis using various gridded datasets. For Saudi Arabia, the area of which represents almost 80% of the Peninsula, the climatic datasets from its 27 ground observations are analysed for the period 1978-2009, with additional gridded datasets used to describe the observed state and change of the present climate. The gridded datasets represent well the very dry (40-80 mm) area over the world's largest sand desert (Rub Al-Khali), the dry (80-150 mm) area over middle-to-north of Saudi Arabia, and the wettest (>150 mm) region in the southwest of the Peninsula. The annual temperature is relatively high (24-27°C) in the middle-to-south of the Peninsula and low (<21°C) in the northwest and southwest. The highest temperature (>27°C) is obtained over the Rub Al-Khali. Over Saudi Arabia, the observed annual rainfall showed a significant decreasing trend (47.8 mm per decade) in the last half of the analysis period, with a relatively large interannual variability, while the maximum, mean and minimum temperatures have increased significantly at a rate of 0.71, 0.60, and 0.48°C per decade, respectively. This information is invaluable to consider in any climate impact assessment studies in Saudi Arabia.

Multi-decadal classification of synoptic weather types, observed trends and links to rainfall characteristics over Saudi Arabia

“…In contrast, the high-rainfall types (e.g., C) tend to decrease. Almazroui et al (2012) found a statistically significant decrease (47.8 mm/decade) in the annual rainfall over Saudi Arabia from 1978 to 2009. It can therefore be implied that the dry periods in the last decades can be related to a weakening of the cyclonic conditions and intensification of the anti-cyclones.…”

“…One possible explanation for this deficit is the lack of a complete, reliable and homogenized dataset of rainfall, that also provides a reasonable spatial coverage. Those studies that have sought to describe the spatial patterns of climate in Saudi Arabia have generally relied on a very limited number of observatories of short duration (e.g., Ahmed, 1997;Abdullah and Almazroui, 1998;Rehman, 2010;Almazroui et al, 2012). Among these, Ahmed (1997) employed factor analysis to classify Saudi Arabia into distinct climate regions, using 14 climate variables from a spatially restricted data set.…”

“…Among these, Ahmed (1997) employed factor analysis to classify Saudi Arabia into distinct climate regions, using 14 climate variables from a spatially restricted data set. More recently, Almazroui et al (2012) assessed the observed annual rainfall over Saudi Arabia from 1978 to 2009, using daily records from 27 observatories. In the same context, there have been limited attempts at classification of the main synoptic types over the region, which can be indirectly linked to regional rainfall patterns.…”

Rainfall analysis in the contest of climate change for Jeddah area, Western Saudi Arabia

“…Knowledge and prediction of wet and dry spell probability occurrence, rainfall variability, shifts, and trends are critical when considering the impact of the climate change and can be estimated with reliability from reasonably available records. Wet and dry sequences are treated by different authors (Feyerhem and Bark 1965;Lioubimtseva 2004;Şen 2009;Almazroui et al 2012). …”

Recent warming trend in the coastal region of Qatar

“…Most studies of the climatic conditions of this region have focused on the inland areas of bigger countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran (Almazroui et al 2012Rahimzadeh et al 2009), and there have been few studies on the climatic conditions of other countries such as Bahrain and Qatar (Brooks and Rogers 2000;Shi et al 2004). Moreover, these studies have focused mainly on interannual variations of weather, with only very limited consideration of seasonal variations, e.g., for Saudi Arabia and Kostopoulou et al (2014) for the entire eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region.…”