ALM UNDP

Summary:

These country-level climate data summaries were prepared with funding from the UNDP National Communication Suport Programme (NSCP) and the UK government Department for International Development (DfiD) in order to address the climate change information gap for developing countries by making use of existing climate data to generate a series of country-level studies of climate observations and the multi-model projections made available through the WCRP CMIP3. A consistent approach has been applied for 52 developing countries in order to produce an 'off the shelf' analysis of climate data, and also make available the underlying data for each country for use in further research.

For more information: UNDP Climate Change Country Profiles

For each of the 52 countries, a report contains a set of maps and diagrams demonstrating the observed and projected climates of that country as country average timeseries as well as maps depicting changes on a 2.5° grid and summary tables of the data. A narrative summarises the data in the figures, and placing it in the context of the country's general climate.

A dataset containing the underlying observed and model data for that country, is made available for use in further research projects. The files are smaller and more manageable than the global fields made available by the PCMDI, and in text format which can be easily downloaded, read and manipulated.

Source: University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment. Accessed on 3 December 2009 at: http://country-profiles.geog.ox.ac.uk/.

Recent Climate Trends

Temperature

• Mean annual temperature has increased by 0.7°C since 1960, an average rate of 0.16°C per decade.
• The rate of increase is most rapid in the wettest season, JAS, at 0.36°C per decade, but there is no evidence of a warming trend in the driest season, JFM.
• There is insufficient daily observed data to identify trends in daily temperature extremes for all seasons, but the average number of ‘hot’ nights per year in Chad has increased by 50 (an additional 13.6% of days1) between 1960 and 2003.
• Cold nights are observed to decrease in all seasons where data are available (JFM, AMJ, and OND). The average number of ‘cold’ nights per month in these seasons has decreased by 3.6‐4.6 (11.6‐14.9% of days) between 1960 and 2003.

Precipitation

• Mean annual rainfall over Chad has not changed with any discernible trend since 1960. Some unusually high rainfalls have occurred in the dry season in the very recent years (2000‐ 2006), but this has not been a consistent trend.
• There is not sufficient daily precipitation data available to determine trends in the daily variability of rainfall.

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