3.2.2. Rainfall Variability

The long-term average annual rainfall of the midland areas was 1185 mm followed by the highland and the lowland areas with respective amounts of 785 and 509 mm. There was noticeable inter-annual and inter-seasonal variability of rainfall (Figure 3). Negative rainfall anomalies were commonly observed during the *belg* season in all agro-ecological settings, being more apparent in the highland areas in recent years. There were also several years of below-average rainfall during the main farming season in the three areas. The *kiremt* season in all areas was characterized by yearly differences in rainfall anomalies. Consecutive years of below-average *kiremt* rainfall was observed mainly in the highland areas. Annual rainfall was below 30 years average in about 47% of the observations in the lowland areas during both *belg* and *kiremt* seasons. In the midland and highland areas, below-average *kiremt* rainfall was observed during 47% and 60% of the observations, respectively.

**Figure 3.** Trends of annual rainfall anomaly index by agro-ecological settings and season (1988–2017).
