Recent Climate Change in the Lake Kyoga Basin, Uganda: An Analysis Using Short-Term and Long-Term Data with Standardized Precipitation and Anomaly Indexes
, Robinson Odong 4 and Samuel Ekwacu 5Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I think the title should include the word “Recent climate change…” because this paper deals with recent climate change and not the future climate change. Therefore, title in its present form is misleading.
The abstract needs an improvement. It tells about changes in temperature and precipitation but does not show the periods for which these changes are computed. Some quantitively description of the changes in the temperature and precipitation will be useful in the abstract.
The introduction missed the citation of some latest climate change related studies done over the Africa. The introduction could be further improved by adding some latest papers from literature. For example, the following studies examined the climate change and extremes over Africa and its subregions using the latest CMIP6 models simulations dataset.
Almazroui, M., Saeed, F., Saeed, S. et al. Projected Change in Temperature and Precipitation Over Africa from CMIP6. Earth Syst Environ 4, 455–475 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-020-00161-x
Almazroui, M., Saeed, F., Saeed, S. et al. Projected Changes in Climate Extremes Using CMIP6 Simulations Over SREX Regions. Earth Syst Environ 5, 481–497 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-021-00250-5
Figures, I suggest showing the African map in place of Uganda and zoom the small domain. This will provide reader an easy understanding about the location of study domain. This could also be useful for comparison purposes in future studies over Africa and will improve the worth of this study.
The authors used standardized anomaly and standardized precipitation index to analyze and describe their results. A recent study of Sen and Almazroui (20210) shows that Actual Precipitation Index is most suitable in describing the precipitation characteristic and drought classifications. The authors should also look this study. Will this change the results if authors use API Index instead of SPI. The reference of study is given below
Şen, Z., Almazroui, M. Actual Precipitation Index (API) for Drought Classification. Earth Syst Environ 5, 59–70 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-021-00201-0
The summary could also be improved. For example the first sentence does not show for which period these changes occurred (or taking place). “The use of long- and short-term data..” The sentence is not clear without description of the long and short terms. The statements are more general and need more quantitively description.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
- Comment 1: I think the title should include the word “Recent climate change…” because this paper deals with recent climate change and not the future climate change. Therefore, the title in its present form is misleading.
Response: Thank you for your comment, we have taken your suggestion and the Recent has been added into the tittle.
- Comment 2: The abstract needs an improvement. It tells about changes in temperature and precipitation but does not show the periods for which these changes are computed. Some quantitive description of the changes in temperature and precipitation will be useful in the abstract.
Response: This is a welcome comment. Abstract has been reviewed, incorporating the periods covered in the study of climate change. Some quantitative values for the observed changes have also been included.
- Comment 3: The introduction missed the citation of some latest climate change-related studies done over Africa. The introduction could be further improved by adding some latest papers from the literature. For example, the following studies examined climate change and extremes over Africa and its subregions using the latest CMIP6 models simulations dataset.
Almazroui, M., Saeed, F., Saeed, S. et al. Projected Change in Temperature and Precipitation Over Africa from CMIP6. Earth Syst Environ 4, 455–475 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-020-00161-x
Almazroui, M., Saeed, F., Saeed, S. et al. Projected Changes in Climate Extremes Using CMIP6 Simulations Over SREX Regions. Earth Syst Environ 5, 481–497 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-021-00250-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-021-00201-0
Response: Thank you for this comment. We indeed looked at the suggested papers and included the findings in the introduction to boost the literature review.
- Comment 4: Figures, I suggest showing the African map in place of Uganda and zooming the small domain. This will provide the reader with an easy understanding about the location of study domain. This could also be useful for comparison purposes in future studies over Africa and will improve the worth of this study.
Response: This comment was well received. A map of Africa was introduced into the study area; however, the map of Uganda was not replaced but remained. We thought showing maps of Africa, Uganda and the study area would be more appropriate.
- Comment 5: The authors used standardized anomaly and standardized precipitation index to analyze and describe their results. A recent study by Sen and Almazroui (2021) shows that the Actual Precipitation Index is most suitable in describing the precipitation characteristic and drought classifications. The authors should also look at this study. Will this change the results if authors use API Index instead of SPI. The reference of study is given below
Şen, Z., Almazroui, M. Actual Precipitation Index (API) for Drought Classification. Earth Syst Environ 5, 59–70 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-021-00201-0
Response: Thank you for this comment. We went through the reference paper, which is well written. We however realized that it would require a little bit of time to re-arrange data as required by the method and carry out data analysis. Also, in case there were some changes in the results as expected, that would require the change of the whole manuscript which would require more time. The reference paper gave some good account of the usefulness of the SPI method. We decided that the API method could be used during the next opportunity. The reference paper was however included in the introduction as part of the literature review.
- Connect 6: The summary could also be improved. For example, the first sentence does not show for which period these changes occurred (or taking place). “The use of long- and short-term data.” The sentence is not clear without the description of the long and short terms. The statements are more general and need more quantitive description.
Response: The summary/conclusion has been reviewed and improved with not only the periods of the study and the quantitative data, but also with more information from the study the we thought was missing but is useful in this section. For example, some recommendations have been included as part of the summary.
Reviewer 2 Report
Find in the attached pdf suggestions for improvement.
Carefully review for use of English, because several sentences are borderline unintelligible.
In the text, there are bits and pieces of comparison against other studies. These should be removed, and reported (with much more insight), in the discussion section.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
Comment 1: Find in the attached pdf suggestions for improvement.
Response: Thank you for these comments. All the comments you raised in the manuscript have been incorporated. We reviewed the manuscript further and made some improvements on top of the comments you raised.
Comment 2: Carefully review for use of English, because several sentences are borderline unintelligible.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have done grammar and spelling check-ups using the Grammarly program to address this comment.
Comment 3: In the text, there are bits and pieces of comparison against other studies. These should be removed, and reported (with much more insight), in the discussion section.
Response: This comment was well received. We took all the references in the result section to the discussion section to support explanations of the results.
Reviewer 3 Report
A complex study, made in a classic style, which highlights the possible climate changes in a medium and long period of time in the analised geographical area. Although the fig 1 from page 3 is mentioned in the text, it is missing.
An analytical complex study, made in a classic style, using various ways which fit in the current trend of approaching climate changes. Even if the research is dedicated to a relatively restricted place when it comes to global level, it may over-excite interest. I didn’t find in the article the fig. 1 from page 3. After adding the figure in the text and a revision of the page layout and the language, I think it may be published further.
Author Response
Comments to the authors and responses
Comment 1: A complex study, made in a classic style, which highlights the possible climate changes in a medium and long period of time in the analyzed geographical area. Although fig 1 from page 3 is mentioned in the text, it is missing.
Response: Thank you for these comments. We are grateful for your good observations on the manuscript. Figure 1, you referred to is available, it is the study area map.
- Comment 2: An analytical complex study, made in a classic style, using various ways which fit in the current trend of approaching climate changes. Even if the research is dedicated to a relatively restricted place when it comes to the global level, it may over-excite interest. I didn’t find it in the article the fig. 1 from page 3. After adding the figure in the text and a revision of the page layout and the language, I think it may be published further.
Response: Thank you for the comment, we have clarified that figure 1 in page 3 is available, it is a study area map. English grammar and phrasing have been checked using Grammarly software.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Editor,
I read the paper. The revised version is improved in view of reviewers' comments as compared to the first version. I think the paper is now suitable for publication. I will therefore recommend to accept the paper.
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
