Assessment of spatio-temporal variability of rainfall and mean air temperature over Ardabil province, Iran

Precipitation and temperature are the most important climate parameters, which vary both spatially and temporally. In the present study, rainfall data of 11 synoptic stations and 40 rain gauge stations and mean air temperature data of 11 synoptic stations of Ardabil province for the period 2009–2019 collected from the Meteorological Organization of Ardabil province, were considered for investigation. The descriptive statistics of rainfall and temperature such as mean, median, coefficient of variation, skewness and kurtosis were analyzed for monthly scale data. A higher coefficient of variation signified a greater degree of variation in precipitation and temperature data across different months. To evaluate the temporal stability over several months, Pearson linear correlation analysis at a significance level of 5% was performed for each variable. Kriging geostatistical estimator and GIS interface (ArcMap 10.4.1) were used for spatial interpolation with the aid of root mean square and SRMS standards. The results revealed that the spatial variation of temperature was greater than that of precipitation.