3.4.2. Rainfall Trend Analysis

For all the stations used in this study only the month of January showed a positive trend of increasing rainfall in the Ficksburg station with 2.34 mm year−<sup>1</sup> at a 0.05 significance level (Table 7). The rainfall trends for the study period of 32 years (from 1985 to 2016) in the Setsoto Municipality showed no significant changes. This statement applies to the seasonal distribution of the rainfall, the total amounts of rainfall and yearly distributions. The only significant data found were for the month of January in Ficksburg, where the rainfall significantly increased by 2.34 mm year−<sup>1</sup> (Table 7). Rainfall in the Free State province shows high variability with the patterns, distribution, intensity and duration of rainfall varying spatially and temporally across different scales [59].

**Table 7.** Monthly rainfall (mm) and its annual trends during the growing period from 1985–2016 for the Setsoto municipality. MK Test Z denotes Mann Kendall trend analysis test, and Q denotes 'the Sen's slope estimate'.


NB: \* denote significance when alpha = 0.05.
