Birhanu Hayelom^1,, Yingjun Chen², Zinabu Marsie¹, Miseker Birega¹

Long term Precipitation and temperature variations are one of the main determinants of climate variability of one’s area. The aim of this study is to determine trends variation in climatic elements of temperature and precipitation in the southern zone of Tigray regional state, Ethiopia. The station is assumed for the study of climatic records over southern zone of the region in detection for probable trends. The daily, monthly and annual precipitation totals and temperature observed at korem meteorological station were used for the period of 1981-2010 for Precipitation and 1985 - 2010 for minimum and maximum temperature. Summary of descriptive statistics and Mann Kendall test methods were employed for the observed data analysis to demonstrate any existence of possible trends. The main findings of the study indicated that the mean and maximum temperature had a general increasing trend of 0.0013°C with high value of coefficient of determination (R² = 0.004); however, minimum temperature showed decreasing trend of -0.1043°C. In general, annual temperature from 1985 - 2010 of the area showed a warming trend. Besides analysis of the 30 years (1981-2010) annual precipitation showed a coefficient of variation ranging from 33.77 - 233 %. It indicated that the precipitation dissemination of the area is not normal with large year to year variances. The observed warming temperature and fluctuation of rainfall is most likely explained by the increasing climate change and variability during the last decades in the area.

temperature, precipitation, Ethiopia, Mann Kendall, climate variability