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 23 November 2009 at: http://country-profiles.geog.ox.ac.uk/.

For Kenya:

Recent Climate Trends

Temperature

• Mean annual temperature has increased by 1.0°C since 1960, an average rate of 0.21°C per decade. This increase in temperature has been most rapid in MAM (0.29°C per decade) and slowest in JJAS (0.19°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 Kenya has increased by 57 (an additional 15.6% of days2) between 1960 and 2003. The rate of increase is seen most strongly in MAM when the average number of hot MAM days has increased by 5.8 days per month (an additional 18.8% of MAM days) over this period.
• The average number of ‘hot’ nights per year increased by 113 (an additional 31% of nights) between 1960 and 2003. The rate of increase is seen most strongly in SON when the average number of hot SON nights has increased by 12 days per month (an additional 38.2% of SON nights) over this period.
• The frequency of cold3 days has decreased significantly in annual and SON records. The frequency of cold nights has, however, decreased more rapidly and significantly in all seasons.
• The average number of ‘cold ‘days per year has decreased by 16 (4.4% 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 1.8 days per month (5.7% of SON days) over this period.
• The average number of ‘cold’ nights per year has decreased by 42 (11.5% of days). This rate of decrease is most rapid in DJF when the average number of cold DJF nights has decreased by 3.5 nights per month (11.4% of DJF nights) over this period.

Precipitation

• Observations of rainfall over Kenya since 1960 do not show statistically significant trends.
• Trends in the extreme indices based on daily rainfall data are mixed. There is an increasing, but no statistically significant trend in the proportion of rainfall occurring in heavy4 events. 1‐ and 5‐day rainfall maxima show inconsistent trends.

To access more information on Kenya: UNDP Climate Change Country Profiles - Kenya

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