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/.

For Ethiopia:

Recent Climate Trends

Temperature

• Mean annual temperature has increased by 1.3°C between 1960 and 2006, an average rate of 0.28°C per decade. The increase in temperature in Ethiopia has been most rapid in JAS at a rate of 0.32°C per decade.
• Daily temperature observations show significantly increasing trends in the frequency of hot days1, and much large increasing trends in the frequency of hot nights.
• The average number of ‘hot’ days per year in Ethiopia has increased by 73 (an additional 20% of days2) between 1960 and 2003. The rate of increase is seen most strongly in JJA when the average number of hot JJA days has increased by 9.9 days per month (an additional 32% of JJA days) over this period.
• The average number of ‘hot’ nights per year increased by 137 (an additional 37.5% of nights) between 1960 and 2003. The rate of increase is seen most strongly in JJA when the average number of hot JJA nights has increased by 18 days per month (an additional 58.8% of JJA nights) over this period.
• The frequency of cold3 days has decreased significantly in all seasons except DJF. The frequency of cold nights has decreased more rapidly and significantly in all seasons.
• The average number of ‘cold ‘days per year has decreased by 21 (5.8% of days) between 1960 and 2003. This rate of decrease is most rapid in SON when the average number of cold SON days has decreased by 2.3 days per month (7.4% of SON days) over this period.
• The average number of ‘cold’ nights per year has decreased by 41 (11.2% of days). This rate of decrease is most rapid in JJA when the average number of cold JJA nights has decreased by 3.7 nights per month (12% of JJA nights) over this period.

Precipitation

• The strong inter‐annual and inter‐decadal variability in Ethipoia’s rainfall makes it difficult to detect long‐term trends. There is not a statistically significant trend in observed mean rainfall in any season in Ethiopia between 1960 and 2006. Decreases in JAS rainfall observed in the 1980s have shown recovery in the 1990s and 2000s.
• There are insufficient daily rainfall records available to identify trends in daily rainfall variability.

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