Abstract
A new look is focused in this study on the analysis of mean temperatures for Bahrain, as observed at its International Airport for the 59 years extending from 1947 to 2005. The temporal trends indicate significant warming of the dry-season temperatures of 0.166°C decade−1. In particular, the summer months of May to July and October demonstrate statistically significant trends of 0.172 to 0.247°C decade−1. There is a tendency for the wet season months to show both decreases and increases in their temperatures though the temporal trends are not significant. The decade of 1991-2000 emerged as a period of conspicuous warming as well as increase in the occurrence of unusual mean temperatures and the number of months per year with above-average temperature. No significant trend in intraannual and intraseasonal temperature variabilities is discerned, but the wet season shows predominantly higher within-season variability in temperatures as compared to the dry season. Further analyses have been carried out on the available extreme temperature data for the period 1981-2005 in an attempt to search for a possible source of climatic and/or non-climatic factors, such as intensifying desertification and rapid urbanization. By and large, the rates of diurnal temperature ranges have increased due to significantly higher rates of increasing maximum in comparison to increasing minimum temperatures. The warming rate of the overall dry season during the day is seven times that during night. However, the nocturnal temperature for the overall wet season has warmed significantly at a rate more than three times that of the overall dry season. There is a sufficient evidence that sources of rapid urbanization around the area of records seem to be a major contributor to the observed rates of temperature. Both the urbanization and the effect of the large water body of the Gulf surrounding the Island of Bahrain seem to have offset the effect of desertification on temperature changes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abakumova GM, Feigelson EM, Russak V, Stadnik VV (1996) Evaluation of long-term changes in radiation, cloudiness, and surface temperature on the territory of the Former Soviet Union. J Clim 9:1319–1327
Alexander LV, Hope P, Collins D, Trewin B, Lynch A, Nicholls N (2007) Trends in Australia's climate means and extremes: a global context. Aust Meteorol Mag 56:1–18
Al-Fahed S, Al-Hawaj O, Chakroun W (1997) The recent air temperature rise in Kuwait. Renew Energy 12(1):83–90
Alnaser WE (1995) Impact of Kuwait's oil-fire smoke cloud on the sky of Bahrain. Sol Energy 54(6):387–396
Alnaser WE, Merzaa MK (2003) Profile of the climate change in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Environmentrics 14:761–773
Alvi SH (1989) Meteorological characteristics of Oman—case study of some regions. In: Proceedings of the First Regional Conference in Civil Engineering (RCCE-89), March 1989, University of Bahrain, Bahrain, pp VIII 21-35
Alvi SH (1995) Climatic changes in Bahrain. GeoJournal 37:45–50
Alvi SH, Bu Ali AR, Alsayed MH (1995) Bahrain, its hydrologic and environmental variations and aridity. Würzbg Georg Manuskr 36:169–182
Baker CB, Quayle RG, Wanlin W (1995) The influence of night time cloud cover on the observed minimum temperature in China. Atmos Res 37:27–35
Balling RC Jr, Nasrallah HA (1991) The impact of rapid urbanization on summer weather stress in Kuwait City. J Arid Environ 21:261–265
Balling RC Jr, Vose RS, Weber G-R (1998) Analysis of long-term European temperature records: 1751–1995. Clim Res 10:193–200
Brown MJ (1999) Urban parameterizations for mesoscale meteorological models. In: Boybeyi Z (ed) Mesoscale atmospheric dispersion, LA-UR-99–5329. WIT Press, Southampton, pp 193–255
Brunetti M, Buffoni L, Maugeri M, Tanni T (2000) Trends of minimum and maximum daily temperatures in Italy from 1865 to 1996. Theor Appl Climatol 66:49–60
Cai M, Hong L, Kalnay E (2003) Impact of Land-use change and urbanization on climate. http://www.atmos-umd.edu/ekalnay/cai-hong-kalnay.pdf. Accessed 2 December 2008
Camilloni I, Barros V (1997) On the urban heat island effect dependence on temperature trends. Clim Change 37:665–681
Chung U, Choi J, Yun JI (2004) Urbanization effect on the observed change in mean monthly temperatures between 1951–1980 and 1971–2000 in Koria. Clim Change 66:127–136
Cooper PI (1969) The absorption of radiation in solar stills. Sol Energy 12:333–346
Directorate of Statistics (2001) Statistical Abstracts. Central Informatics Organization, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
Directorate of Statistics (2003) Statistical Abstracts. Central Informatics Organization, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
Dessens J, Bücher A (1995) Changes in minimum and maximum temperatures at Pic du Midi in relation with humidity and cloudiness. Atmos Res 37:147–162
Elagib NA (2008) Additional evidence of changing rainfall resource of Bahrain. Paper presented at the First International Conference on Water Resources and Climate Change in the MENA Region, Organized by the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources—Sultanate of Oman, and the Regional Centre on Urban Water Management—Tehran, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, 2–4 November 2008
Elagib NA, Abdu ASA (1997) Climate variability and aridity in Bahrain. J Arid Environ 36:405–419
Elagib NA, Mansell MG (2000a) Recent trends and anomalies in mean seasonal and annual temperatures over Sudan. J Arid Environ 45:263–288
Elagib NA, Mansell MG (2000b) Climate impacts of environmental degradation in Sudan. GeoJournal 50:311–327
FAO (2009) http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries/bahrain/index.stm. Accessed 30 March 2009
GCPMREW (2005) Bahrain's Initial National Communications to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, vol 1: Main Summary Report. General Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife (GCPMREW), Kingdom of Bahrain
Hansen J, Lebedeff S (1988) Global surface air temperatures: update through 1987. Geophys Res Lett 15(4):323–326
Jones PD (1994) Hemispheric surface air temperature variations: a reanalysis and an update to 1993. J Clim 7(11):1794–1802
Jones PD (1995) Maximum and minimum temperature trends in Ireland, Italy, Thailand, Turkey and Bangladesh. Atmos Res 37:67–78
Jones DA (1999) Characteristics of Australian land surface temperature variability. Theor Appl Climatol 63:11–31
Jones PH, Briffa KR (1992) Global surface air temperature variations during the twentieth century: part 1, spatial, temporal and seasonal details. Holocene 2(2):165–179
Jones PD, Raper SCB, Bradley RS, Diaz HF, Kelly PM, Wigley TML (1986) Northern hemisphere surface air temperature variations: 1851–1984. J Climate Appl Meteorol 25:161–179
Kanji GK (1997) 100 statistical tests. SAGE Publications, London, New Delhi, p 94
Karl TR, Jones PD, Knight RW, Kukla D, Plummer N, Razuvayev V, Gallo KP, Lindseay J, Charlson RJ, Peterson TC (1993) A new perspective on recent global warming: asymmetric trends of daily maximum and minimum temperature. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 74(6):1007–1023
Karl TR, Knight RW, Plummer N (1995) Trends in high-frequency climate variability in the twentieth century. Nature 377:217–220
Khamdan SAA, Al Madany IM, Buhussain E (2009) Temporal and spatial variations of the quality of ambient air in the Kingdom of Bahrain during 2007. Environ Monit Assess 154(1–4):241–252
LaDochy S, Medina R, Patzert W (2007) Recent California climate variability: spatial and temporal pattern in temperature trends. Clim Res 33:159–169
Lal M, Harasawa H, Takahashi K (2002) Future climate change and its impacts over small island states. Clim Res 19:179–192
Landsberg HE (1970) Man-made climatic changes. Science 170(3964):1265–1274
Lee DO (1992) Urban warming? An analysis of recent trends in London heat island. Weather 47(2):50–56
Lough JM (1995) Temperature variations in a tropical-subtropical environment: Queensland, Australia, 1910–1987. Int J Climatol 15:77–95
Lough JM (1997) Regional indices of climate variation: temperature and rainfall in Queensland, Australia. Int J Climatol 17:55–66
Marsh WM, Grossa J Jr (1996) Environmental geography: science, land use, and earth systems. Wiley, New York, p 183
Maugeri M, Nanni T (1998) Surface air temperature variations in Italy: recent trends and update to 1993. Theor Appl Climatol 61:191–196
Michaels PJ, Balling RC Jr, Vose RS, Knappenberger PC (1998) Analysis of trends in the variability of daily and monthly historical temperature measurements. Clim Res 10:27–33
Nasrallah HA, Balling RC Jr (1993a) Spatial and temporal analysis of Middle Eastern temperature changes. Clim Change 25:153–161
Nasrallah HA, Balling RC Jr (1993b) Analysis of recent climatic changes in the Arabian Gulf region. Environ Conserv 20(3):223–226
Nasrallah HA, Balling RC Jr (1996) Analysis of recent climatic changes in the Arabian Peninsula region. Theor Appl Climatol 53:245–252
Nicholls N (2004) The changing nature of Australian droughts. Clim Change 63:323–336
Nicholls N, Drosdowesky W, Lavery B (1997) Australian rainfall variability and change. Weather 52:66–72
Parry ML, Carter TR, Hulme M (1996) What is a dangerous climate change? Glob Environ Change 6(1):1–6
Peterson TC, Golubev VS, Goisman PY (1995) Evaporation losing its strength. Nature 377:687–688
Plantico MS, Karl TR, Kukla G, Gavin J (1990) Is recent climate change across the United States related to rising levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gases? J Geophys Res 95(D10):16617–16637
Price C, Michaelides S, Pahiardis S, Alpert P (1999) Long term changes in diurnal temperature range in Cyprus. Atmos Res 51:85–98
Przybylak R (1997) Spatial and temporal changes in extreme air temperatures in the Arctic over the period 1951–1990. Int J Climatol 17:615–634
Qureshi S, Khan N (1994) Estimation of climatic transition in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) in global warming perspectives. GeoJournal 33(4):423–432
Robinson PJ, Henderson-Sellers A (1999) Contemporary climatology, 2nd edn. Longman, London, p 185
Shaw WS (1992) Smoke at Bahrain during the Kuwaiti oilfield fires. Weather 47(6):220–226
Suckling PW (1984) Trends in monthly temperature departures for the contiguous United States, 1940–1983. Phys Geogr 5(2):150–163
UNDP (2007) Human Development Report 2007/2008, Fighting Climate Change: Human solidarity in a divided world. United Nations Development Programme, New York. http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR2007/2008EN. Accessed 8 June 2008 and 15 July 2009
UNEP (1993) Environmental data report, 1993–1994. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, pp 107–130
Wigley TML (1988) The effect of climate change on the frequency of absolute extreme events. Clim Monit 17(2):44–55
Acknowledgements
We are thankful to the reviewers for providing invaluable comments and suggestions on this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Elagib, N.A., Abdu, A.S.A. Development of temperatures in the Kingdom of Bahrain from 1947 to 2005. Theor Appl Climatol 101, 269–279 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-009-0205-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-009-0205-y