Identification

Title

Distinguishing southern Africa precipitation response by strength of El Niño events and implications for decision-making

Abstract

December-February precipitation in southern Africa during recent El Nino events is studied by distinguishing circulation and precipitation responses during strong and moderate-to-weak events. We find that while both strong and moderate-to-weak El Nino events tend to dry southern Africa, the pattern and magnitude of precipitation anomalies in the region are different, with strong El Nino events resulting in rainfall deficits often less than -0.88 standardized units and deficits of only about half that for the moderate-to-weak case. Additionally, the likelihood of southern Africa receiving less than climatologic precipitation is approximately 80% for strong El Nino events compared to just over 60% for moderate-to-weak El Nino. Strong El Nino events are found to substantially disrupt onshore moisture transports from the Indian Ocean and increase geopotential heights within the Angola Low. Since El Nino is the most predictable component of the climate system that influences southern Africa precipitation, the information provided by this assessment of the likelihood of dry conditions can serve to benefit early warning systems.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7pg1vj2

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2018-07-03T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact