摘要：Drought is the result of many causes as well as a normal feature of climate. Meteorological drought is the first stage of the drought, and it originates with a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time. The semi-arid Puntland state of Somalia faced a cycle of prolonged droughts which led to deaths in thousands of people, livestock, and severe impacts on agriculture due to the unevenly temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall. Drought monitoring is a vital and important part of predicting and analyzing the effects of droughts. No single index can represent all aspects of meteorological drought. In this study, a multi-index approach of meteorological drought indices such as Deciles Drought Index (DDI), Percent of Normal Index (PNI) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was carried out to investigate droughts using seven rain gauge stations across the Puntland state of Somalia. Although limited annual precipitation data were used in the study, drought index results revealed that the indices detected successfully the four distinct droughts recorded in the region in the years of 2008, 2011, 2016 and 2017. The Puntland region experienced continues drought spells over the last decade, which are characterized a moderate to extreme droughts. In addition to the expectations, only two wet years (2012 and 2013) were observed in the region. We can conclude that the Puntland has become more dominant in dry spell due to the climate change and desertification. The outcomes of this study might be useful for decision-makers in applying appropriate drought monitoring and early warning programs in Puntland state. Further studies are recommended to asses and evaluate the extent and severity of drought events over the entire country by utilizing longer meteorological series as well as other drought indices.
