Spatiotemporal evolution of droughts and their teleconnections with large-scale climatic indices in the Lower Sebou Basin in northwestern Morocco

Abstract

The Lower Sebou Basin, placed in a Mediterranean climate, has the particularity of being exposed to the influence of disturbances from the Atlantic Ocean, making periods of drought and climatic phenomena variable in space and time. Applying the world’s most recognized drought indices, shows that the duration, frequency and severity of droughts have increased since the start of the 21st century. These results revealed and placed in the even wider regional climatic context, including the two dominant atmospheric oscillations such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Mediterranean Oscillation (MO), suggest that the significant drought trends determined are correlated with the relative facts of the two oscil-lations.