Abstract
West Africa is the region of the world with the highest recent rainfall deficit. Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, is highly dependent on rainfall variations in the context of global warming, the consequences of which seem to be unfavorable in the coming decades. Based on the daily rainfall data of 37 Nigerien stations, this article analyzes the evolution of precipitation through eleven indices between 1950 and 2014. After a severe drought of three decades which is individualized from 1968 to 1997, it appears that if a return at subnormal annual average rainfall is observed since 1998, this is not the case for other vital indices for the rural world, depending on the good distribution of rainfall during the rainy season. Indeed, the consecutive dry days have increased and the consecutive wet days have been reduced. The same goes for rainy days. At the same time, the proportion of daily maximum precipitation in the total annual rainfall has increased over time and the proportion of intense rainfall in the annual rainfall totals has increased significantly in the last two decades.
Translated title of the contribution | Recent evolution of rainfall extremes in Niger (1950-2014) |
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Original language | French |
Pages (from-to) | 375-383 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Geo-Eco-Trop |
Volume | 41 |
Issue number | 3 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2017 |
Externally published | Yes |