ABSTRACT
The work
discusses the temperature and precipitation fluctuation of Madinah-Al-Munawara,
Saudi Arabia for a time period of 1959-2011. This is a city in the Hejaz region
of western Saudi Arabia, the capital of Al Madinah Province and important religious
place. For many years now, Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is active on national
as well as international levels to adopt a more suitable policy for the study
of climate changes and reviews it periodically as per country economic desires.
The main sectors that affect the temperature and precipitation fluctuations in
Saudi Arabia are surface water, coastal management, overgrazing, forestry,
livestock, drought, desertification, industrialization, landuse change, tourism,
and aridity etc. The paper analyzes the temperature and precipitation
fluctuations of Madinah-Al-Munawara in terms of general climatology, climate fluctuation/variation,
seasonal distribution and extreme weather events. The mean monthly temperature
of the city recorded during 1959-2011 is 28°C having mean
maximum temperature of 34°C and mean minimum of 21°C. The mean monthly
temperature of the city shows an increase of 1.7°C having 1.2°C increase in
maximum temperature and decrease of -1.9°C in minimum temperature. Generally,
there is a rise and fall in the temperature condition and shows irregular
pattern throughout the period. The total precipitation of the city is 36 millimeters;
having a decrease of -0.3 millimeters but in general the trend of precipitation
at Madinah-Al-Munawara shows an increasing trend throughout the period. April
and November are the wettest, while June, August, September and October are the
hottest months of the city. The area is characterized by two main seasons that
is winter (5 months) and summer (7 months), which can further be sub-divided
into four rainy seasons namely winter, post-winter, summer, and post-summer
seasons.