caa a22 4500 445800585 CHVBK 20180317145139.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20111101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00704-011-0413-0 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00704-011-0413-0 Evaluation of spatial and temporal characteristics of rainfall in Malawi: a case of data scarce region [Elektronische Daten] [Cosmo Ngongondo, Chong-Yu Xu, Lars Gottschalk, Berhanu Alemaw] This paper presents the methods, procedure and results in studying spatial and temporal characteristics of rainfall in Malawi, a data scarce region, between 1960 and 2006. Rainfall variables and indicators from rainfall readings at 42 stations in Malawi, excluding Lake Malawi, were analysed at monthly, seasonal and annual scales. In the study, the data were firstly subjected to quality checks through the cumulative deviations test and the standard normal homogeneity test. Spatial rainfall variability was investigated using the spatial correlation function. Temporal trends were analysed using Mann-Kendall and linear regression methods. Heterogeneity of monthly rainfall was investigated using the precipitation concentration index (PCI). Finally, inter-annual and intra-annual rainfall variability were tested using normalized precipitation anomaly series of annual rainfall series (|AR|) and the PCI (|APCI|), respectively. The results showed that (1) most stations revealed statistically non-significant decreasing rainfall trends for annual, seasonal, monthly and the individual months from March to December at the 5% significance level. The months of January and February (the highest rainfall months), however, had overall positive but statistically non-significant trends countrywide, suggesting more concentration of the seasonal rainfall around these months. (2) Spatial analysis results showed a complex rainfall pattern countrywide with annual mean of 1,095mm centred to the south of the country and mean inter-annual variability of 26%. (3) Spatial correlation amongst stations was highest only within the first 20km, typical of areas with strong small-scale climatic influence. (4) The country was further characterised by unstable monthly rainfall regimes, with all PCIs more than 10. (5) An increase in inter-annual rainfall variability was found. The Author(s), 2011 Ngongondo Cosmo Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O. Box1047, Oslo, Norway aut Xu Chong-Yu Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O. Box1047, Oslo, Norway aut Gottschalk Lars Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O. Box1047, Oslo, Norway aut Alemaw Berhanu Department of Geology, University of Botswana, Pr. Bag 0022, Gaborone, Botswana aut Theoretical and Applied Climatology Springer Vienna 106/1-2(2011-11-01), 79-93 0177-798X 106:1-2<79 2011 106 704 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-011-0413-0 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-011-0413-0 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Ngongondo Cosmo Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O. Box1047, Oslo, Norway aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Xu Chong-Yu Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O. Box1047, Oslo, Norway aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Gottschalk Lars Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O. Box1047, Oslo, Norway aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Alemaw Berhanu Department of Geology, University of Botswana, Pr. Bag 0022, Gaborone, Botswana aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Theoretical and Applied Climatology Springer Vienna 106/1-2(2011-11-01), 79-93 0177-798X 106:1-2<79 2011 106 704 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer