Exploring Spatio-Temporal Climate Dynamics over Central Southern Africa: A Cross Border Analysis
Date
2023-07
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
Understanding the diverse nature of climate dynamics in southern Africa is imperative in the face of climate change. Ground-based meteorological stations provide high-resolution climate data that can be used to investigate and analyse climate in detail. However, southern African countries monitor and manage meteorological stations independently which presents various challenges when attempting cross-border studies. While there are many meteorological-station-based climate studies conducted for South Africa or Botswana, there are few that combine meteorological datasets from both these countries to investigate climate dynamics across political boundaries. In this study, meteorological data from Botswana Meteorological Services and the South African Weather Service spanning 1912-2019 is pre-processed, cleaned and combined to produce a cross-border dataset. A total of 44 stations covers the Gauteng and North West provinces in South Africa and the southern, Kweneng, Kgatleng, South-east and Kgalagadi districts of Botswana. The combined cross-border dataset includes the average monthly summer, winter and annual rainfall (RS, RW and RA respectively) and the average monthly minimum and maximum summer, winter and annual temperatures (TSmin, TSmax, TWmin, TWmax, TAmin and TAmax respectively). From the linear regression analysis, an overall increasing trend for temperature is identified barring two stations (TSmin and TAmin for Mahalapye Met station, and TWmin for Vaalharts). Additionally, for rainfall there is a significant decreasing trend identified. Lastly, the spatial variability of the region is determined using an Inverse Distance Weighted interpolation in the GIS Software, ArcMap, to interpolate between stations. From this a west to east reduction in rainfall and a north-western to south-eastern decreasing temperature gradient is identified across the study region.
Description
A research reported submitted for the Master of Science to the Faculty of Science, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023.
Keywords
Climatology, GIS, Southern Africa, Botswana, South Africa, Weather, Climate, Climate Change, UCTD
Citation
Welff, Megan. (2023). Exploring Spatio-Temporal Climate Dynamics over Central Southern Africa: A Cross Border Analysis. [Master's dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/41533