Articles | Volume 23, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2365-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2365-2023
Research article
 | 
28 Jun 2023
Research article |  | 28 Jun 2023

Propagation from meteorological to hydrological drought in the Horn of Africa using both standardized and threshold-based indices

Rhoda A. Odongo, Hans De Moel, and Anne F. Van Loon

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Cited articles

Adloff, M., Singer, M. B., MacLeod, D. A., Michaelides, K., Mehrnegar, N., Hansford, E., Funk, C., and Mitchell, D.: Sustained Water Storage in Horn of Africa Drylands Dominated by Seasonal Rainfall Extremes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 49, e2022GL099299, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL099299, 2022. 
Agutu, N. O., Awange, J. L., Zerihun, A., Ndehedehe, C. E., Kuhn, M., and Fukuda, Y.: Assessing multi-satellite remote sensing, reanalysis, and land surface models' products in characterizing agricultural drought in East Africa, Remote Sens. Environ., 194, 287–302, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.041, 2017. 
Agutu, N. O., Awange, J. L., Ndehedehe, C., and Mwaniki, M.: Consistency of agricultural drought characterization over Upper Greater Horn of Africa (1982–2013): Topographical, gauge density, and model forcing influence, Sci. Total Environ., 709, 135149, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135149, 2020. 
Apurv, T., Sivapalan, M., and Cai, X.: Understanding the Role of Climate Characteristics in Drought Propagation, Water Resour. Res., 53, 9304–9329, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021445, 2017. 
Awange, J. L., Khandu, Schumacher, M., Forootan, E., and Heck, B.: Exploring hydro-meteorological drought patterns over the Greater Horn of Africa (1979–2014) using remote sensing and reanalysis products, Adv. Water Resour., 94, 45–59, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.04.005, 2016. 
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Short summary
We characterize meteorological (P), soil moisture (SM) and hydrological (Q) droughts and the propagation from one to the other for 318 catchments in the Horn of Africa. We find that propagation from P to SM is influenced by soil properties and vegetation, while propagation from P to Q is from catchment-scale hydrogeological properties (i.e. geology, slope). We provide precipitation accumulation periods at the subbasin level that can be used as a proxy in drought forecasting in dryland regions.
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