Variation of centennial precipitation patterns in Kuwait and their relation to climate change.

Abstract

The impact of climate change couldbe inferred by observing long-term climate variables like temperature, precipitation, and evapotranspiration. A local study on the climatic factors such as temperature, precipitation, CO2 emissions, and population was carried out. The temperature records of the study period reflected an increase of 1.3°C, higher than the global average. The relationship between the climatic factors from statistical analysis inferred that local factors did not influence the precipitation in Kuwait but showed an interrelationship among temperature, CO2 emissions, and, population. Therefore, Kuwait's precipitation concerning regional atmospheric processes like sea surface temperature, volcanic eruption, wind direction, and El Nino and La Nina events were studied. The pragmatic change in wind direction in Kuwait from northwest to north after 2005 has enforced to study the effect of the volcanic eruption of Mount Etna on the precipitation in Kuwait. A marked correlation between the precipitation trends and post-eruptive periods of Mount Etna was observed. Similarly, El Nino and La Nina events were correlated, especially with the monthly temperature and total rainfall. Thus, the increase in sea surface temperature and volcanic events influenced the Hadley cell circulation and the shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, affecting the rain events in Kuwait.