OCCURRENCE OF EXTREME CLIMATE BETWEEN 2012 AND 2022 IN BADINGILO NATIONAL PARK OF SOUTH SUDAN
Authors: Onono Francis Alex, Aggrey Lemi Abate and Malik Doka Morjan
Onono Francis Alex: Department of Animal Production, College of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, University of Juba, Juba, South Sudan, P. O. Box 82
Aggrey Lemi Abate: Department of Animal Production, College of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, University of Juba, Juba, South Sudan, P. O. Box 82
Malik Doka Morjan: Department of Wildlife Sciences, College of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, University of Juba, Juba, South Sudan, P.O. Box 82.
ABSTRACT
The study assesses the occurrence of extreme climate from 2012 to 2022 at Badingilo National Park in South Sudan. Descriptive statistics were used to produce graphs of annual rainfall and temperature from 2012 to 2022. XLSTAT was used to run nonparametric statistics, employing Mann-Kendall and Sen’s slope estimator, to establish monthly and annual trends of rainfall and temperature amounts between 2012 and 2022. Furthermore, the Rain-based Meteorological Drought Indices Tool (RDIT) software was employed to determine the occurrence and severity of droughts and floods at Badingilo National Park from 2012 to 2022. The results showed that the increase in monthly rainfall amounts was not significant (P>0.05) between January-March, July, and September-December from 2012 to 2022. The trend of annual rainfall amount increased, whereas monthly and annual temperature trends decreased between 2012 and 2022. Likewise, the Effective Drought Index (EDI), Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), Percent of Normal Precipitation Index (PNI), and Rainfall Anomaly Index (RAI) affirmed the occurrence of severe monthly and annual droughts between 2012 and 2019, and severe floods in 2020, with 150 percent above-normal rainfall amounts. Certainly, extreme floods require heightened awareness and early warning systems for the pastoral communities around Badingilo National Park in South Sudan.
Keywords: Extreme flooding, Monthly rainfall trends, Annual rainfall trend, Monthly temperature trend, Annual temperature trend, and Drought severity