Wavelet analysis of variability, teleconnectivity, and predictability of the September-November East African rainfall

By applying wavelet analysis and wavelet principal component analysis (WPCA) to individual wavelet-scale power and scale-averaged wavelet power, homogeneous zones of rainfall variability and predictability were objectively identified for September-November (SON) rainfall in East Africa (EA). Teleconnections between the SON rainfall and the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures (SST) were also established for the period 1950-97. Excluding the Great Rift Valley, located along the western boundaries of Tanzania and Uganda, and Mount Kilimanjaro in northeastern Tanzania, EA was found to exhibit a single leading mode of spatial and temporal variability. WPCA revealed that EA suffered a consistent decrease in the SON rainfall from 1962 to 1997, resulting in 12 droughts between 1965 and 1997. Using SST predictors identified in the April-June season from the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans, the prediction skill achieved for the SON (one-season lead time) season by the nonlinear model known as artificial neural network calibrated by a genetic algorithm (ANN-GA) was high [Pearson correlation rho ranged between 0.65 and 0.9, Hansen-Kuipers (HK) scores ranged between 0.2 and 0.8, and root-mean-square errors (rmse) ranged between 0.4 and 0.75 of the standardized precipitation], but that achieved by the linear canonical correlation analysis model was relatively modest (rho between 0.25 and 0.55, HK score between -0.05 and 0.3, and rmse between 0.4 and 1.2 of the standardized precipitation).