Impact of Large-Scale Climate Indices on Meteorological Drought of Coastal Ghana

The devastating effects of drought on agriculture, water resources, and other socioeconomic activities have severe consequences food security resource management. Understanding the mechanism that drives predicting its variability is important for enhancing early warning disaster risk In this study, meteorological droughts over six coastal synoptic stations were investigated using three-month Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). dry seasons November-December-January (NDJ), December-January-February (DJF), January-February-March (JFM) focal study. Trends SPIs evaluated seasonal Mann–Kendall test. relationship between SPI ocean-atmosphere climate indices their predictive ability assessed Pearson correlation Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) stepwise regression method to select best at lagged timestep fit SPI. exhibited moderate during seasons. Accra a significant increasing trend in JFM, NDJ, DJF Besides, Saltpond DJF, Tema, Axim NDJ season showed recent years, are increasing, an indication weak intensity, catchment areas becoming wetter traditional Direct (inverse) was established Atlantic (equatorial Pacific) ocean's indices. modulating different time lags combination either Nino 3.4, 4, 3, 1 + 2, TNA, TSA, AMM, or AMO given station. AIC model explained up 48% variance indicates great potential prediction Coastal Ghana.