3.1.1. Trends of Temperature

The average annual temperature of the lowland, midland, and highland areas during the observation period was 22.1, 15.5, and 14.6 ◦C, respectively. As shown in Table 1, the average annual temperature significantly increased by 0.4 ◦C per decade in the lowland and by 0.3 ◦C per decade in the midland areas. The result suggests that the increase in average annual temperature in the lowland areas was related to significant increases in average maximum temperatures, whereas, in the midland areas, there was a significant increase in both average maximum and average minimum temperatures. The seasonal pattern shows increasing trends in average annual temperature during both *belg* and *kiremt* seasons in all areas. Increases in average maximum temperatures seem to have caused significant increases in the average temperature of the *belg* season in the lowland areas and average temperatures of the *kiremt* season in the midland areas. In other cases, this significant increasing trend was partly related to an increase in the average minimum temperature.

**Table 1.** Agro-ecological differences in seasonal and annual trends of temperature and rainfall (1988–2017).


\* *p* < 0.05, \*\* *p* < 0.01, \*\*\* *p* < 0.001.
