Abstract
There has been an increasing concern about effects of global warming on rainfall. Negative impacts on rainfall affect the environment and socio-economic activities of nations, globally. Rainfall characteristics at the Upper East Region (UER) of Ghana in terms of temporal and spatial variability are investigated from 1981 to 2016 using rainfall data from Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) and Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Station. Using cumulative residual analysis, Mann–Kendall (MK), Sen’s slope, wavelet transform (WT) and principal component analysis (PCA) tests, the rainfall variability in UER was examined. Results showed that 1981, 1999, 2002 and 2013 were years of major changes in rainfall variation. The MK and Sen’s slope showed that 55.71% of UER have decreasing monthly rainfall with 27.34% significant trend. Months April, May and June showed decreasing rainfall trends. Months July, August and September showed significant increasing rainfall trend. WT revealed a significant variation in the annual rainfall. PCA revealed that the spatial variability of rainfall in UER is very diverse with 33.76% of the variability located in the northeastern part. The findings serve as benchmark in providing in-depth understanding of rainfall variation in UER for water resource managers, agriculturalists and drought mitigation.
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