Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Application of Seasonal Autoregressive Moving Average Models to Analysis and Forecasting of Time Series Monthly Rainfall Patterns in Embu County, Kenya

Tartisio Njoki Filder, Moses Mahugu Muraya, Robert Mathenge Mutwiri

Asian Journal of Probability and Statistics · pp. 1–15 · Published 19 Aug 2019

10.9734/ajpas/2019/v4i430123

Abstract

Rainfall is of critical importance for many people, particularly those whose livelihoods depend on rain-fed agriculture. Predicting the trend of rainfall is a difficult task, and statistical approaches such as time series analysis provide a means for predicting the patterns of rainfall. The models also offer the potential to improve areas such as increased food production, profitability, and improved food security policing. However, these forecasts and information systems may, in some instances, not be suitable for direct use by stakeholders in their decision-making. The objective of this study was to investigate rainfall variability and develop a Seasonal Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model for fitting the monthly rainfall using time series data. Secondary monthly data from 1998 to 2017 for Embu County was collected from the Kenya Meteorological Department, Embu and recorded into an excel sheet. R-software was utilized to analyse data for descriptive statistics, rainfall variability, and model fitting. The coefficient of variation for annual and seasonal rainfall was calculated. The Box Jenkin's ARIMA modelling procedure (model identification, model estimation, model validation) was used to determine the best models for the data. The main study findings indicated the existence of annual variability of 34%, March-April-May rainfall variability of 44%, and October-November-December variability of 44%. A first-order differenced SARIMA (1, 1, 1) (0, 1, 2)12 model with an AIC score of 9.99356 was found suitable for predicting rainfall pattern in Embu, County. The study outcome revealed that Embu County experiences high seasonal and rainfall variation of rainfall, thus requires a reliable model for better prediction. 

Rainfall forecastin time series analysis SARIMA residual analysis.

Cited by 10

Modelling Dekadal Rainfall Dynamics in Kenyan Subnational Regions Using Sarima Model

Linnet Chege, P. Gachoki, Joseph Esekon · American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics · 2026

Comparative time series analysis of Anatolian water buffalo stock in Türkiye

Mustafa Özdemir, Onur Şahin, M. U. Çınar · Buffalo Bulletin · 2024

Forecasting monthly rainfall using autoregressive integrated moving average model (ARIMA): A case study of Fada N’Gourma station in Burkina Faso

Bontogho Tog-Noma Patricia Emma, Maré Boussa Tockville, Yangouliba Gnibga Issoufou · World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews · 2023

Forecasting Commodity Price Index of Food and Beverages in Kenya Using Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) Models

T. M. Wanjuki, Adolphus Wagala, Dennis K. Muriithi · European Journal of Mathematics and Statistics · 2021

ARIMA Model for Accurate Time Series Stocks Forecasting

Shakir Khan, Hela Alghulaiakh · 2020

Time Series Analytic Models for Forecasting Vehicular Registration Volume in the Indian Context

M. A. Jayaram · Communications in Computer and Information Science · 2024

Forecasting Stock Price Using Time-Series Analysis and Deep Learning Techniques

Nilesh B. Korade, Mohd. Zuber · Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering · 2024

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

0

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

10

Citations

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

No views recorded yet.

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

No traffic recorded yet.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.