Assessing the Climatological Characteristics of Observed and Simulated Seasonal Onset of Precipitation Over Southern and Eastern Africa

ABSTRACT Prediction of seasonal onset is crucial to agriculture in southern and eastern Africa. Here, we applied two definitions of onset, namely meteorological and agricultural (crop‐germination), to evaluate CMIP6 models through the lens of rainfall onset over representative maize agricultural regions of South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. We use the ERA5 reanalysis as a proxy for observations, and robust regression to calculate a statistical comparison of the onset definitions for the period 1979–2021. Evaluation of ERA5 reanalysis shows similar magnitude and pattern as gauge based MSWEP. Our results show that, for meteorological onset, Johannesburg, with a subtropical highland climate, experienced earliest onset after 23 December; and an increasing trend (later onset) but not statistically significant ( p = 0.2). Over Bethlehem, which has continental climate, the earliest onset date was after October 9 and an increasing interannual variability since 2000 is noted. The standard deviation of onset dates across the regions shows an East‐Central‐South gradient. We also found that the crop‐germination onset definition shows earlier onset of seasonal rains, it differs considerably across regions, and has higher interannual variability, in comparison with the meteorological definition. Over Lilongwe, Mbeya and Lusaka, late meteorological onset with a weak positive and insignificant trend is observed. The CMIP6 model's representation of onset trend differs from reanalysis data, with inter‐model differences. Late meteorological onset is underestimated by GFDL‐CM4 and MPI while INM5, MPI and NorESM overestimate the observed earliest onset. The largest bias is shown by INM and MPI which simulate earliest and latest onset as 190 (07 January) and 206 (23 January) respectively. In addition, models often fail to simulate sufficient precipitation to produce onset for seed germination and crop development. The ACCESS model showed an insignificant trend ( p value = 2) and later onset over Lilongwe, an insignificant trend ( p value = 0.9) over Lusaka, and an earlier onset over Mbeya. Using the agricultural onset definition, over Bethlehem, all the models and the ERA5 reanalysis did not produce enough precipitation to meet onset conditions. We suggest that rainfall onset studies use several definitions or metrics of onset and that the choice of metric be informed by the research question. Using such an ensemble of onset metrics contributes to a better understanding of variability and uncertainties in agricultural productivity.