World Meteorological Day

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of urban land use changes on land surface temperature (LST) in Ramsar utilizing a comprehensive methodology that employed Landsat imagery. The results indicated that the built-up index (BI) and built-up area (BU) indices experienced significant growth, increasing by ~157.5% and 38.91%, respectively. In contrast, the normalized difference water index (NDWI) exhibited a negative trend, decreasing by ~61.2%. In the base year, man-made land use accounted for ~20% of the city’s area. By 2022, this proportion had risen to ~76%, reflecting an impressive growth rate of 230.4%. This increase in man-made land use demonstrated a strong and positive correlation with the BI and BU indices at confidence levels of 0.01 and 0.05. Furthermore, the urban LST rose from ~35.55°C in the base year to ~38.91°C in 2022. Read the research paper!

  This study investigated the spatiotemporal variability of rainfall in the humid, semiarid and arid ecoclimatic zones of Narok County. It addresses the insufficient understanding of rainfall variability within Narok County due to generalizations in previous research and a lack of detailed statistical analysis and data gaps from inadequate stations. The study aims to provide a precise analysis of spatial and temporal rainfall variations to better inform climate adaptation strategies and local planning. The analysis covered the period 1981–2021 and utilized gridded precipitation reanalysis data version two of Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2) project and monthly rainfall data (mm) from the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) for Narok Meteorological Station (NMS). Various statistical techniques, including Kruskal–Wallis (H) test, Rainfall Anomaly Index (RAI), and trend analysis, were employed to assess rainfall patterns across three ecocli...