Determinants of southeast Ethiopia seasonal rainfall

The bi-modal climate of SE Ethiopia shares attributes with East Africa, notably that El Nino enhances rainfall, particularly in Sep-Nov season. In this study SE Ethiopia's continuous and seasonal rainfall relationships to global climate are studied to extend our knowledge of its determinants and predictability. A statistical forecast algorithm for the Sep-Nov short rains accounts for 54% of variance in 1980-2010. The Apr-Jun predictors include South Atlantic sea surface temperature, east Indian Ocean sea level air pressure and China upper zonal wind. Cooling in the South Atlantic coincides with a strengthened sub-tropical anticyclone, and later to changes in low level winds that bring orographic convection to SE Ethiopia. The slower El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) interacts with the faster Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), but both signals mature too late for direct use in statistical prediction of Sep-Nov rainfall. Composite differences of the upper divergent circulation exhibit a global wave-2 pattern consistent with satellite-observed convection. One key feature is a zonal gradient in upper velocity potential over the Indian Ocean corresponding with a zonal atmospheric circulation. One outcome of this research is useful forecasts of SE Ethiopia Sep-Nov rainfall that will assist in agricultural planning. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.