Drought is a recurrent phenomenon and a normal feature of climate. It is one of the major natural hazards that frequently hits Syria, causing significant damages to ecosystems and social–economic environment, especially agricultural areas.
The purpo
se of current study is to estimate the degree of severity and the frequency of drought at seasonal and annual timescales in the southern region of Syria by applying the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) on the rainfall data recorded over (1958-2006) in four climatic stations: Damscus, Khrabo, Dara and El-Sweda.
The results showed that there were no significant changes or trends in annual winter and spring rainfall at southern region scale. They also showed its frequent exposure to drought. At annual timescale, Damscus and Khrabo stations were distinguished from the others by extreme drought, and Khrabo by severe drought. The season mostly exposed to drought events was spring, followed by winter and autumn seasons. The absence of the evere drought of Dara winter, and the extreme drought of Damscus and Khrabo autumn were also observed.
