Effect of Enso indices on meteorological drought in the midwest of Iran

Drought occurs due to lack of humidity and deficiency in precipitation amount. Therefore, it is important to recognize and investigate the effective factors on precipitation deficiency and consequently drought occurrence. Enso is a phenomenon of climatic teleconnection that can affect weather in different regions of the world. Enso is one of the important large-scale phenomena affecting the temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall and consequently the drought that occurs in the tropical Pacific. The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of Enso on meteorological drought in the midwest of Iran.

First, precipitation data of synoptic stations in 14 locations were obtained in the west of Iran. Then, SPI values was calculated at different time scales of 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 24, and 48 month using the spi-sl-6.exe software package. In the next step, using the data of Enso including Nino1+2, Nino3, Nino3.4, and Nino4, the Spearman correlation test was simultaneously performed in the Minitab16 program. Then, the asynchronous relationship was investigated with the cross-correlation function between Enso and SPI in time series of months 1 to 48 in SPSS16. Finally, linear regression modeling was performed. Multivariate regression test with simultaneous and delayed states of 1-6, 12, 24, and 48 months was used based on the stepwise method.

Results are presented in three sections: simultaneous, asynchronous relations, and regression equations. Results showed a high correlation between seasons of autumn and spring with indices of Nino4, Nino3.4, Nino3, and Nino1+2. In addition, the asynchronous relationship was better than the simultaneous mode. Better significance in the asynchronous mode is due to the effect of Enso on weather and drought in Iran. Considering the p-value <0.05, it was shown that the highest significance was observed between Enso indices and drought index in Bushehr station. In addition, in a number of stations, including Arak, Urmia, Shiraz and Hamedan, no significant relationship was observed in their simultaneous state. The regression analysis showed that Nino4, Nino3.4, Nino3 and Nino1+2 indices had the highest effect in different time series of SPI with the highest positive and negative coefficients of atmospheric oceanic index in all stations. The results showed that high correlation between Enso and SPI can affect predicting climatic conditions, drought, floods, planning, and crisis management in watershed scale.

Enso can be used as predictors of long-term climatic factors such as precipitation and temperature. Enso phenomenon in Nino1 + 2, Nino3, Nino3.4 and Nino4 regions can be used as predictors of climatic factors such as rainfall for long-term forecast of precipitation and finally drought and wet season in different parts due to the universal Enso phenomenon. It seems that due to the mechanism of the Enso phenomenon and its relationship with natural disasters, further studies can be effective in predicting climatic conditions, drought and floods in Iran which ultimately can be used in predicting hydro-climatic events.