Temperature-Rainfall and Drought Analysis for Diyarbakir City, Turkey

Abstract

As a result of industrial activities, the increase in carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere causes global warming. This warming causes increase in extreme events such as climate change, flood and drought. In recent years, as a result of changes in climates, while drought is observed in some regions, floods are observed in some other regions with increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation. Investigations agree that a large part of the product loss during a season is caused by the reduction of rainfall resulting from water shortages and drought in the arid and semi-arid regions. In this study, an analysis of precipitation-temperature and drought was performed for Diyarbakir city using average temperature and average monthly rainfall values provided by State Meteorological Works for long years and 20 years periods. In the first phase of the study, the temperature and precipitation changes of Diyarbakir were investigated. Significant decreases in precipitation were detected. In the second stage, drought index according to the Thornthwaite method, Improved Fournier precipitation index, Bagnouls-Gaussen drought index and abrasive power indices caused by precipitation were calculated. It was determined that while according to Thornthwaite drought index classification, Diyarbakir is slightly humid and dry, according to Bagnouls-Gaussen method, it is very arid, and it has moderate level according to corrosive power index value. It is concluded that Diyarbakir has an arid period between June and September lasting for 4 months, and it bears a critical low humidity and drought risk.

Keywords: Diyarbakir, Temperature, Precipitation index, Drought index, Thornthwaite method, Fournier method, Bagnouls-Gaussen method