Climatic variations of general atmospheric circulation, precipitation and river flow of the territory of Kazakhstan

Methods of calculating the basic hydrological characteristics of a water resource assessment, as well as the planning and management of their long-term use are based upon the concept of stationarity of long-term flow fluctuations. However, data of researches by hydrologists and climatologists clearly indicate that there are long-period changes in the characteristics of precipitation and river flow. This article discusses the variations of annual precipitation and river flow in the Ishim River Basin in Kazakhstan, based on the W, C and E classification developed by G.Y. Vangengeim who analyzed the long-term variability of anomalies by the number of days with some form of atmospheric circulation. From this study, the largest anomaly of the macro-circulation processes was revealed, and a comparative analysis of the number of days with various forms of atmospheric circulation and precipitation anomalies was made. It was demonstrated that the nature of atmospheric circulation depends on the distribution of precipitation; however, precipitation is also highly dependent on local physiographic conditions. The analysis of anomalous precipitation during the maximum number of days of positive anomalies with various forms of atmospheric circulation was also carried out. This study presents some results from the preliminary analysis of annual river flow linked with forms of atmospheric circulation.