Recent precipitation and temperature changes in Djibouti City

A dataset of derived indicators has been compiled to clarify whether the frequency and / or the severity of rainfall and temperature extremes changed over the last decades in the city of Djibouti in East Africa. This study uses the only current available coverage of homogenous daily series which can be used for calculating any significant change in rainfall and temperature in recent years. It covers the 1980–2011 period for precipitation and the 1966–2011 period for what regards maximum, minimum and mean temperature. We used a set of 23 indicators of extreme climatic events.
Results show that the annual total precipitation, the annual total of wet days (with daily rainfall >= 1mm) and the frequency of very wet days (defined as the 95th percentile) have strongly declined over the last 32 years. Yet, since 2007, mean yearly rainfall meets a 73% deficit when compared to the 30-year average, a situation that is much worst than what was observed in the early 1980s.
For what regards temperatures, the average increase recorded during the 1966–2011 period is of +0.28°C per decade, a far higher value than the global rising temperature. Heatwaves characterized by daily maximum temperatures ≥ 45°C (that is the 99th percentile) have become 15 times more frequent than in the past (comparing the 1966–75 and 2002–2011 periods) while extremely cool nights (<18.7°C, that is the 1st percentile in minimum temperature) have almost disappeared.
Although the database should be extended to improve the global picture of recent climate changes in Djibouti, it seems very likely that rainfall shortages and increasing temperature extremes have already impacted the people of the Republic of Djibouti, especially the water availability and health sectors.
Adaptation strategies are urgently needed since the global warming process is not likely to decline in the next decades.