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ABSTRACT
Rainfall and temperature are important parameters that determine the climatic condition
of a region andis a growing concern in the current situation. Growing industrialization and
increasing use of fossil fuels are putting pressure and effecting the regional and global
temperatures that are subsequently influencing the overall precipitation levels. GCC and Arab
countries are mostly dominated by dry climate and hot winds for most part of the year with
little or no rainfall in most regions. In Middle east, specifically GCC countries economy
depends on oil and gas production, processing, and exports, and these resources are used for
electricity generation across all the six countries. This practice invariably is releasing more of
greenhouse gases coupled with industrial emissions annually from industrialized zones.
Among the six GCC nations, Oman has the second largest land area next to Saudi Arabia and
has significant quantities of oil and gas resources and limited ground water resources.
Scarcity of ground water poses serious problems for farming and potable water that cannot be
supported by scanty or less rainfall annually. In absence of considerable data on rainfall
pattern and temperature deviations, this paper is focused to highlight the rainfall scenario over
temperature changes by studying the rainfall patterns over three designated regions for a
certain duration. In Oman rainfall patterns and temperatures are stimulated by the weather
changes and mostly by heavy industrialization in the recent past. Precipitation data and
temperature profiles are two dependent parameters that are analyzed to achieve the objectives
of the study. Regression analysis is performed to understand the trend in the rainfall pattern
with changes in temperature in the three designated regions of Oman using the data of 14
years. The study revealed significant outcomes indicating distinct relationship between rainfall
and temperature. Changing ambient temperatures in each region has shown to influence the
rainfall pattern differently in Muscat region contrasting the Maseira and Sur region of the
study area. The trend in rainfall pattern with one unit temperature variations are not uniform
across all the three study regions that show apparent variations due the differently
contributing factors such as topography, wind speed, direction, mountain ranges, relative
humidity, and proximity to sea etc. that would govern the precipitation rates.
Key words: Climate change, GCC, precipitation, regression, rainfall, temperature.
Cite this Article: Dr. K. H. Jonathan, Dr. P. Suvarna Raju, Analysis of Rainfall Pattern and
Temperature Variations in Three Regions of Sultanate of Oman. International Journal of Civil
Engineering and Technology, 8(2), 2017, pp. 173181.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=8&IType=2
1. INTRODUCTION
Global rainfall patterns associated with changing temperatures globally are growing cause of concern
that are becoming vital indicators for climate change currently [1]. Climatic factors predominantly
precipitation rate facilitate the growth and development of civilizations and leads to habitat
development. Rainfall patterns and rate over a region are reliant on the ambient and global water
evaporation and to significant extent on altitude, latitude, and level of humidity [2]. Earths mixture of
contributing gases aid in facilitating the overall phenomena of precipitation and the variation in the
gaseous composition leads to disruption in the atmospheric events and weather phenomena [3].
Warmer conditions apparently brought out from increased emissions of greenhouse gases though
industrialization causes evaporation and precipitation with varying degree of intensity on individual
regions [4]. In this paper, the rainfall rate and patterns of three prominent regions in the sultanate of
Oman is studied with relation to temperature and to estimate the rainfall decline rates from periodical
temperature surges. Three principal locations viz, Maseira (island), Sur (Ash Sharqiyah region) and
Muscat in (Muscat governate) Sultanate of Oman are chosen for the study [13].
2. METHODOLOGY
The relationship between temperature and precipitation are examined based on the data fromMinistry
of National Economy [MoNE] and Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs (MECA).
Information from local people in the three regions; Fig 1. Masirah, Sur and Muscat is also gathered to
assess the temperature and precipitation phenomena during the study period (1996-2009). A rainfall
and temperature detail for the study is collected from multiple sources such as national centre for
statistics and information (NCSI), statistical year book 2010.
This probably remains as the main factor for declining rainfall rate in Oman. Accordingly,
increasing accumulation of greenhouse gases eventually builds more surface heat that would bring
major shifts in precipitation rates most likely from slight alterations in temperature. Arab countries in
the Middle East region would experience an increase in temperature of 2C to 5.5C with project
decrease of 0-20% precipitation by the end of 21 st century [15]. Fig.2 shows the gradual decrease of
rainfall rate in Oman from 1996-2003 that forecasts a significant relationship between temperature and
precipitation of each region.
Region Equation Constant (b0) value [1] R-Sq (The [2] Standard
square of the Deviation (S)
correlation)
Maseira R= 1367.1 - 31.9 T 1367.13 -31.9 64.7 % 27.2721
Sur R= 365.6 -6.3 T 365.6 -6.3 1.5 % 85.1152
Muscat R= 156.5 - 1.38 T 156.5 -1.38 0.1 % 88.3327
[1] R-Sq value calculated using MINITAB 14 program (approximate values)
[2] S value calculated using MINITAB 14 program (approximate values)
Top of Form 41 39 43 42 43 42 43 40 41 41 42 42 43 42
Temperature
(T) C
Top of Form 95 117 13 12 6 1 6 127 10 24 55 35 6 8
Rainfall
(R) mm
100
95
Rainfall (mm)
80
60
55
40
35
24
20
13 12 10
6 6 6 8
0 1
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Years
Figure 2 Rainfall pattern of Maseira Region
120
56.9 50.6 Rainfall
100 44.3
38 Temperature
31.7
25.4
Temperature C
80 19.1
12.8
6.5
0.2
60
55 56 57 58
50 51 52 53 54
40 49
20
0
56.9 50.6 44.3 38 31.7 25.4 19.1 12.8 6.5 0.2
Rainfall (mm)
300
250
150
100
50
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Year
350
300 308
250 237
Rainfall (mm)
200
150
109
100 100
79 85
61
50 43 52 44
33 29
18 17
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Year
Figure 5 Rainfall pattern in Muscat region
In Muscat region, the rainfall rate decreased slightly in a period of 14 years from 1996 to 2009,
with recorded low rate during 1999 to 2006 and sudden increase in 2007 and declined thereafter as
shown in shown in Fig 5. In the year 2007, Muscat region received the highest rainfall amount because
of cyclone Gonu that has impacted most part of the Oman coast.
4. CONCLUSION
From the analysis of the three regions, the rainfall rate and pattern during the study period are
influenced by the ambient temperatures and intermittent fluctuations would affect in changes in the
rainfall rate. The net rainfall amount decreased in Muscat region is less compared to Maseira and Sur
region with increase in temperature, while there is significant decrease in rainfall rate with temperature
increase in the latter two locations. Topography, absence of major mountain ranges, prevalence of
industrial zones etc. in Muscat region, cause less fluctuations in temperature that are resulting in
insignificant reduction in rainfall amount.
In addition, increase use of fossil fuel and combustion from growing industrialization locally and
globally are affecting precipitation rates as greenhouse gases gradually increases surface temperatures
which this more prevalent in urbanized environments such as Muscat. Hence, further studies
extensively are required to establish correlation between surface temperatures and rainfall rate to
understand the contributing factors that govern the precipitation pattern across the sultanate.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank Mr. Affan K Al Akhzami, Managing Director and Chief Executive, International
College of Engineering, and Management (ICEM), Muscat for his encouragement and support. We are
indebted to the Dean Dr. Ali Al Lawati (ICEM) for his moral support and guidance at all the stages of
this work. Thanks to Dr. Angayar, Head of the Department for facilitating this work.
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