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ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on the regionalisation of precipitation in Botswana during the period 1972 to 1989. Regionalisation is used as a step towards understanding the relationship between precipitation and general circulation patterns. Daily summer rainfall data from fourteen stations are smoothed with a five day filter. PCAs of the early and late summer periods show three significant components that together explain approximately 60% of the total variance. Regionalisation shows that there is a change in the spatial locations of the component regions during the summer season. Using the component scores as representing the behaviour of precipitation in each region, comparisons were made between rainfall characteristics under high and low phases of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). A marked difference was found in the comparison regarding the timing and magnitude of precipitation. The use of PCA is found to be an effective technique for regionalisation of precipitation.