Potential impacts of 1.5 °C and 2 °C global warming levels on drought modes over Eastern Africa

This study examines the impacts of 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C global warming levels on the characteristics of four major drought modes over Eastern Africa in the future under two climate forcing scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). The droughts were quantified using two drought indices: the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and the standardized precipitation index (SPI) at 12-month scale. Four major drought modes were identified with the principal component analysis (PCA). Multi-model simulation datasets from the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) were analysed for the study. The skill of the models to reproduce the spatial distribution and frequency of past drought modes over Eastern Africa was examined by comparing the simulated results with the Climate Research Unit (CRU) observation. The models give realistic simulations of the historical drought modes over the region. The correlation between the simulated and observed spatial pattern of the drought modes is high (r ≥ 0.7). Over the hotspot of the drought modes, the observed drought frequency is within the simulated values, and the simulations agree with the observation that the frequency of SPI-12 droughts is less than that of SPEI-12 droughts. For both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, the simulation ensemble projects no changes in the spatial structure of the drought modes but suggests an increase in SPEI-12 drought intensity and frequency over the hotspots of the drought modes. The magnitude of the increase, which varies over the drought mode hotspots, is generally higher at 2 °C than at 1.5 °C global warming levels. More than 75% of the simulations agree on these projections. The projections also show that the increase in drought intensity and frequency is more from increased potential evapotranspiration than from reduced precipitation. Hence, the study suggests that to reduce impacts of global warming on future drought, the adaptation activities should focus on reducing evaporative loss surface water.