Agricultural Meteorological Properties of Aras Basin in Turkey

Climate has direct effects on the surface features, vegetation, animals, agriculture, and human behaviours of a region. Agricultural Meteorology is briefly the application of climatology to agriculture. Planning and works to be performed without taking climatic conditions into account might lead to incorrect results and serious damages. Therefore, climate studies of the regions should be made, constantly monitored and renewed in certain periods. In this study; climatic conditions, climate diagrams and water budgets of Erzurum, Agri, Igdir, Kars, and Ardahan provinces in basin of Aras were evaluated using their thirty-year data (1976-2005). The course and the relationships of temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, and evaporation parameters were investigated for the selected period. As a result, the long term annual average temperature of Igdir is twofold and more than the others. Long-term mean annual rainfalls of all provinces in Aras basin are less than Turkey's average precipitation. Contrary to common belief, Igdir has the lowest long term monthly and annual relative humidity values in Aras basin. Igdir and Ardahan provinces have the highest and lowest long term average of total evaporation values, respectively.