A Recent Study Concerning the Climatic Variability over the Kingdom Saudi Arabia for the Period 1948-2018

Abstract

The present paper provides a recent study of the climatic variability over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for the period 1948-2018. Moreover, for that period, the relationship of this climatic variability over KSA with the climatic indices is studied. The NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis monthly data sets of the meteorological and climatic parameters over the KSA for the period from the year 1948 to the year 2018 are used. The parameters are (air temperature at levels of 1000 hpa and 500 hpa, mean sea level pressure, geopotential height at 500 hpa level, surface relative humidity, precipitation rate, and outgoing longwave radiation). In addition, the monthly data of climatic indices (North Atlantic Oscillation index (NAO), Arctic Oscillation (AO), Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), Nino 3.4, Global Mean Surface Air Temperature (GMST)) are used. The time series trend, anomaly method, and correlation coefficient techniques are used for data analysis. The results revealed that the annual meteorological and climatic parameters vary dramatically from year to year through the period of study (1948-2018). The trend of this variation is a positive trend for the temperature, pressure and outgoing longwave radiation parameters over KSA. Meanwhile, it is a negative trend of the annual values of surface humidity and precipitation over KSA. The climatic indices influence and control the distribution of annual meteorological and climatic parameters over KSA. The highest significant correlation recorded is between the mean annual of climatic parameters over KSA and the climatic index of global mean surface air temperature (GMST).