ARCHIVES
Original Article
A Drought Forecasting Model Using the Prophet Time Series Analysis Technique
Erick Katumo1
Dr. Charles Katila2
Dr. Richard Omolo3
Dr. Hadullo Ken4
1234 Department of Computer Science and Information Technology at the Cooperative University of Kenya.
Published Online: May-August 2025
Pages: 290-294
Cite this article
↗ https://www.doi.org/10.59256/indjcst.20250402038References
1. Adnan, M., Habib, A., Ashraf, J., Mussadiq, S., Raza, A. A., Abid, M., Bashir, M., & Khan, S. U. (2021). Predicting at-risk students at
different percentages of course length for early intervention using machine learning models. IEEE Access, 9, 7519–7539.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.30494462. AghaKouchak, A., Pan, B., Mazdiyasni, O., Sadegh, M., Jiwa, S., Zhang, W., Love, C. A., Madadgar, S., Papalexiou, S. M., Davis, S. J.,
Hsu, K., & Sorooshian, S. (2022). Status and prospects for drought forecasting: Opportunities in artificial intelligence and hybrid physical–
statistical forecasting. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 380(2238), 20210288. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0288
3. Al Mamun, M. A., Sarker, M. R., Sarkar, M. A. R., Roy, S. K., Nihad, S. A. I., McKenzie, A. M., Hossain, M. I., & Kabir, M. S. (2024).
Identification of influential weather parameters and seasonal drought prediction in Bangladesh using machine learning algorithm. Scientific
Reports, 14(1), 566. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-51111-2
4. Alamgir, M., Khan, N., Shahid, S., Yaseen, Z. M., Dewan, A., Hassan, Q., & Rasheed, B. (2020). Evaluating severity–area–frequency of
seasonal droughts in Bangladesh under climate change scenarios. Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 34(2), 447–464.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-020-01768-2
5. Basak, A., Rahman, A. T. M. S., Das, J., Hosono, T., & Kisi, O. (2022). Drought forecasting using the Prophet model in a semi-arid climate
region of western India. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 67(9), 1397–1417. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2022.2082876
6. Bosire, E., Gitau, W., Karanja, F., & Ouma, G. (2019). Analysis of climate variability, trends and expected implications on crop production
in a semi-arid environment of Machakos County, Kenya. International Journal of Scientific Research and Innovative Technology, 6(4), 30–
39.
7. Chien, H.-Y. S., Turek, J. S., Beckage, B., & Eppstein, M. J. (2021). Modeling drought conditions using deep learning techniques.
Environmental Modelling & Software, 144, 105132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105132
8. Dikshit, A., Pradhan, B., & Alamri, A. M. (2020). Short-term spatio-temporal drought forecasting using random forests model. Applied
Sciences, 10(13), 4516. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10134516
9. Dikshit, A., Pradhan, B., Shukla, A. K., Alamri, A. M., & Alam, S. (2021). Improved drought forecasting using LSTM deep learning model.
Journal of Hydrology, 597, 126190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.126190
10. Gebrechorkos, S. H., Hülsmann, S., & Bernhofer, C. (2019). Changes in temperature and precipitation extremes in Ethiopia, Kenya, and
Tanzania. International Journal of Climatology, 39(1), 18–30. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5777
11. Hu, Y., & Zheng, H. (2019). Time series drought forecasting using LSTM networks. Advances in Meteorology, 2019, 1–10.
https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3527341
12. Kimaro, J., Massawe, B., & Kimaro, E. (2022). Effects of deforestation and poor agricultural practices on soil moisture content in East Africa.
Environmental Sustainability, 5(1), 38–48.
13. Mahmoud, Y. M., & Mohammed, N. B. (2024). Deep learning for long-range climate forecasting: A comparative study of LSTM and GRU.
Journal of Climate Analytics, 12(1), 55–67.
14. Menculini, L., Pizzi, S., Mancini, M., & Vantaggiato, S. (2021). Comparing Prophet and deep learning to ARIMA in forecasting food prices.
Agricultural Economics, 52(3), 331–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12616
15. Mustafa Abdullah, M., & Mohsin Abdulazeez, A. (2021). Applications of support vector machines in weather and drought forecasting: A
survey. Journal of Soft Computing and Decision Support Systems, 8(1), 1–11.
16. Nandgude, S., Gupta, A., & Nandgude, P. (2023). Evaluation of SARIMA and SARIMAX in drought forecasting: A multivariate analysis.
Water Resources Management, 37(2), 421–437.
17. Probst, P., Wright, M. N., & Boulesteix, A. L. (2019). Hyperparameters and tuning strategies for random forest. Wiley Interdisciplinary
Reviews: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 9(3), e1301.
18. Rezaiy, M., & Shabri, A. (2023). Using ARIMA/SARIMA for Afghanistan’s drought forecasting based on SPI. Climate Risk Management,
39, 100510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2023.100510
19. Shohan, M. A. I., Hossain, M. S., & Chowdhury, M. T. (2022). Prophet-LSTM hybrid model for electric load forecasting. Smart Grid and
Sustainable Energy, 13(1), 101–112.
20. Spinoni, J., Vogt, J., Naumann, G., Barbosa, P., & Dosio, A. (2019). Will drought events become more frequent and severe in Europe?
International Journal of Climatology, 39(4), 1445–1462. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5858
21. Sundararajan, S., Venkatesan, R., & Arunachalam, D. (2021). Machine learning approaches for drought forecasting: A review. Computers
and Electronics in Agriculture, 187, 106285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2021.106285
22. Taylor, S. J., & Letham, B. (2021). Forecasting at scale. The American Statistician, 72(1), 37–45.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2017.1380080
23. Topping, J. C., Smith, L. M., & White, A. B. (2020). Forecasting air quality using the Prophet time series model. Atmospheric Environment,
242, 117823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117823
24. Wainwright, C. M., Finney, D. L., & Funk, C. (2021). Understanding East African soil moisture variability using seasonal rainfall and land
cover data. Climate Dynamics, 57, 987–1002. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05629-5
25. Zhao, Y., Li, Z., & Zhang, R. (2022). Regional drought prediction with integrated satellite-based data using Prophet. Remote Sensing, 14(12),
2721. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14122721
different percentages of course length for early intervention using machine learning models. IEEE Access, 9, 7519–7539.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.30494462. AghaKouchak, A., Pan, B., Mazdiyasni, O., Sadegh, M., Jiwa, S., Zhang, W., Love, C. A., Madadgar, S., Papalexiou, S. M., Davis, S. J.,
Hsu, K., & Sorooshian, S. (2022). Status and prospects for drought forecasting: Opportunities in artificial intelligence and hybrid physical–
statistical forecasting. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 380(2238), 20210288. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0288
3. Al Mamun, M. A., Sarker, M. R., Sarkar, M. A. R., Roy, S. K., Nihad, S. A. I., McKenzie, A. M., Hossain, M. I., & Kabir, M. S. (2024).
Identification of influential weather parameters and seasonal drought prediction in Bangladesh using machine learning algorithm. Scientific
Reports, 14(1), 566. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-51111-2
4. Alamgir, M., Khan, N., Shahid, S., Yaseen, Z. M., Dewan, A., Hassan, Q., & Rasheed, B. (2020). Evaluating severity–area–frequency of
seasonal droughts in Bangladesh under climate change scenarios. Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 34(2), 447–464.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-020-01768-2
5. Basak, A., Rahman, A. T. M. S., Das, J., Hosono, T., & Kisi, O. (2022). Drought forecasting using the Prophet model in a semi-arid climate
region of western India. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 67(9), 1397–1417. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2022.2082876
6. Bosire, E., Gitau, W., Karanja, F., & Ouma, G. (2019). Analysis of climate variability, trends and expected implications on crop production
in a semi-arid environment of Machakos County, Kenya. International Journal of Scientific Research and Innovative Technology, 6(4), 30–
39.
7. Chien, H.-Y. S., Turek, J. S., Beckage, B., & Eppstein, M. J. (2021). Modeling drought conditions using deep learning techniques.
Environmental Modelling & Software, 144, 105132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105132
8. Dikshit, A., Pradhan, B., & Alamri, A. M. (2020). Short-term spatio-temporal drought forecasting using random forests model. Applied
Sciences, 10(13), 4516. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10134516
9. Dikshit, A., Pradhan, B., Shukla, A. K., Alamri, A. M., & Alam, S. (2021). Improved drought forecasting using LSTM deep learning model.
Journal of Hydrology, 597, 126190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.126190
10. Gebrechorkos, S. H., Hülsmann, S., & Bernhofer, C. (2019). Changes in temperature and precipitation extremes in Ethiopia, Kenya, and
Tanzania. International Journal of Climatology, 39(1), 18–30. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5777
11. Hu, Y., & Zheng, H. (2019). Time series drought forecasting using LSTM networks. Advances in Meteorology, 2019, 1–10.
https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3527341
12. Kimaro, J., Massawe, B., & Kimaro, E. (2022). Effects of deforestation and poor agricultural practices on soil moisture content in East Africa.
Environmental Sustainability, 5(1), 38–48.
13. Mahmoud, Y. M., & Mohammed, N. B. (2024). Deep learning for long-range climate forecasting: A comparative study of LSTM and GRU.
Journal of Climate Analytics, 12(1), 55–67.
14. Menculini, L., Pizzi, S., Mancini, M., & Vantaggiato, S. (2021). Comparing Prophet and deep learning to ARIMA in forecasting food prices.
Agricultural Economics, 52(3), 331–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12616
15. Mustafa Abdullah, M., & Mohsin Abdulazeez, A. (2021). Applications of support vector machines in weather and drought forecasting: A
survey. Journal of Soft Computing and Decision Support Systems, 8(1), 1–11.
16. Nandgude, S., Gupta, A., & Nandgude, P. (2023). Evaluation of SARIMA and SARIMAX in drought forecasting: A multivariate analysis.
Water Resources Management, 37(2), 421–437.
17. Probst, P., Wright, M. N., & Boulesteix, A. L. (2019). Hyperparameters and tuning strategies for random forest. Wiley Interdisciplinary
Reviews: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 9(3), e1301.
18. Rezaiy, M., & Shabri, A. (2023). Using ARIMA/SARIMA for Afghanistan’s drought forecasting based on SPI. Climate Risk Management,
39, 100510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2023.100510
19. Shohan, M. A. I., Hossain, M. S., & Chowdhury, M. T. (2022). Prophet-LSTM hybrid model for electric load forecasting. Smart Grid and
Sustainable Energy, 13(1), 101–112.
20. Spinoni, J., Vogt, J., Naumann, G., Barbosa, P., & Dosio, A. (2019). Will drought events become more frequent and severe in Europe?
International Journal of Climatology, 39(4), 1445–1462. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5858
21. Sundararajan, S., Venkatesan, R., & Arunachalam, D. (2021). Machine learning approaches for drought forecasting: A review. Computers
and Electronics in Agriculture, 187, 106285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2021.106285
22. Taylor, S. J., & Letham, B. (2021). Forecasting at scale. The American Statistician, 72(1), 37–45.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2017.1380080
23. Topping, J. C., Smith, L. M., & White, A. B. (2020). Forecasting air quality using the Prophet time series model. Atmospheric Environment,
242, 117823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117823
24. Wainwright, C. M., Finney, D. L., & Funk, C. (2021). Understanding East African soil moisture variability using seasonal rainfall and land
cover data. Climate Dynamics, 57, 987–1002. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05629-5
25. Zhao, Y., Li, Z., & Zhang, R. (2022). Regional drought prediction with integrated satellite-based data using Prophet. Remote Sensing, 14(12),
2721. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14122721
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