The Impact of Climate Change Upon Winter Rainfall

Abstract

Climatic models that project the impact of climate change upon rainfall in the Eastern Mediterranean region predict that the negative impact will be more pronounced upon winter rainfall rather than Fall or Spring rainfall where instability conditions become more pronounced. Those models, also, predict that, due to the great geographical diversity, projected rainfall trends in the above region will show great spatial variability. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the possible impact of climate change upon winter rainfall (December, January and February) in Jordan. Data from six meteorological stations that represent well the spatial variation of rainfall in the country is used. Various statistical techniques are applied in this study including, linear regression, t- test, moving averages and CUSUM charts. Results of the analysis reveal a decreasing rainfall trend in all the sample stations. However, the decreasing trends are significant at the 0.05 level in three stations only (Salt, Amman and Irbid). The negative impact of climate change upon winter rainfall totals in the northern and central parts of Jordan, where most of winter rainfall is associated with Mediterranean depressions, is statistically significant at the 0.05 level. However, such impact is not significant in the southern and eastern parts of the country, where a greater portion of winter rainfall is associated with khamasini depressions and instability conditions. Further research analyzing the impact of climate change upon other climatic elements such as temperature, relative humidity and dust storms is needed.