Agro Climatic Characterization of the Western Zone of Tigray Region, Humera

Abstract

Climate characterization is very use full for understanding the current occurrence of the climate in the area for agricultural planning; therefore climate characterization of the western Tigray, Humera is very useful The main objectives of this work is to statistically investigate the climate characterization of the western part of the Tigray region. Climate of the study area was analyzed using Instat and Mann-Kendall software’s. Using the observed climate data (1980 to 2009), the annual rainfall in the study area revealed a decreasing trend with an inter-annual variability of 16.7%. Of all the historical climate data (30 years), 70% of the onset date was on first week of June, while the cessation date was on September 15. The Markov chain first order model indicates that the probability of 7 and 12 days dry spell on May (80%) and September (90%) were very high. The mean minimum temperature ranges between 17.5⁰C and 22.2⁰C, while, the mean maximum temperature varies between 33⁰C and 41.7⁰C.

Keywords: Characterization, Mann-Kendall, Markov chain