The assessment of the temporal characteristics of surface air temperatures over Kenya

Abstract

The research assessed the temporal characteristic of surface air temperature over Kenya using graphical and statistical technique. The temporal characteristics investigated in the study included inter-annual trends in the extreme temperature, and determine the trend of temperature range Daily records for all meteorological stations in Kenya for the period of 1975 to 2014 were used. In the graphical approach, visual examination of inter-annual trend were used whilst analysis of variance (ANOVA) and non-parametric methods were used in statistical approach. The data used was from all synoptic stations in Kenya from 1975 to 2014. All data was quality-controlled before using for analysis. The inter-annual minimum and maximum temperature patterns showed distinct decadal variability observed in minimum and maximum temperature records. Similarly the temperature range showed a distinct decadal variability. Trends patterns in observed minimum and maximum temperature showed a lot of geographical and seasonal variations. The findings of this study will be of utmost importance since temperature is an important parameter in the space-time distribution of natural resources, and life in general. These findings will therefore be useful to planners and managers of food, agriculture, water, social-economic, and many other natural resources that are climate-dependent.