The rainfall pattern shows a very high seasonality with 70 to 80% of the annual rain falling in July and August. Mean temperature in Maygwa is 17 °C, oscillating between average daily minimum of 9.4 °C and maximum of 24.4 °C. The contrasts between day and night air temperatures are much larger than seasonal contrasts.[4]
The Giba River's tributary, the Tanqwa is the most important river in the surroundings of thetabia. It flows towardsTekezze River and further on to theNile. The rivers have incised deep gorges which characterise the landscape.[5]Thedrainage network of thetabia is organised as follows:[6]
Whereas they are (nearly) dry during most of the year, during the main rainy season, these rivers carry high runoff discharges, sometimes in the form offlash floods. Especially at the begin of the rainy season they are brown-coloured, evidencing high soilerosion rates.
In this area with rains that last only for a couple of months per year, reservoirs of different sizes allow harvesting runoff from the rainy season for further use in the dry season.
Traditional surface water harvesting ponds, particularly in places without permanent springs, calledrahaya
Horoyo, household ponds, recently constructed through campaigns[8]
Thetabia centre Maygwa holds a few administrative offices, a health post, a primary school, and some small shops. Saturday is the market day.[7] There are a few more primary schools across thetabia. The main other populated places are:[6]
The population lives essentially from crop farming, supplemented with off-season work in nearby towns. The land is dominated byfarmlands which are clearly demarcated and are cropped every year. Hence theagricultural system is a permanent uplandfarming system.[17] The farmers have adapted theircropping systems to the spatio-temporal variability in rainfall.[18]
Its mountainous nature and proximity toMekelle make thetabia fit for tourism.[19] As compared to many other mountain areas inEthiopia the villages are quite accessible, and during walks visitors may be invited for coffee, lunch or even for an overnight stay in a rural homestead.[20]
The high variability of geological formations and the rugged topography invite for geological and geographic tourism or "geotourism".[21] Geosites in thetabia include:
May Qoqah river with permanentbaseflow andgully control structures (log dams and check dams)
^Moeyersons, J. and colleagues (2006). "Age and backfill/overfill stratigraphy of two tufa dams, Tigray Highlands, Ethiopia: Evidence for Late Pleistocene and Holocene wet conditions".Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.230 (1–2):162–178.Bibcode:2006PPP...230..165M.doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.07.013.
^Amanuel Zenebe, and colleagues (2019). "The Giba, Tanqwa and Tsaliet Rivers in the Headwaters of the Tekezze Basin".Geo-trekking in Ethiopia's Tropical Mountains. GeoGuide. SpringerNature. pp. 215–230.doi:10.1007/978-3-030-04955-3_14.ISBN978-3-030-04954-6.S2CID199099067.
^Mastewal Yami, and colleagues (2007). "Impact of Area Enclosures on Density and Diversity of Large Wild Mammals: The Case of May Ba'ati, Douga Tembien Woreda, Central Tigray, Ethiopia".East African Journal of Sciences.1:1–14.
^Wolde Mekuria, and colleagues (2011). "Restoration of Ecosystem Carbon Stocks Following Exclosure Establishment in Communal Grazing Lands in Tigray, Ethiopia".Soil Science Society of America Journal.75 (1):246–256.Bibcode:2011SSASJ..75..246M.doi:10.2136/sssaj2010.0176.
^Bedru Babulo, and colleagues (2006). "Economic valuation methods of forest rehabilitation in exclosures".Journal of the Drylands.1:165–170.
^Nyssen, J.; Naudts, J.; De Geyndt, K.; Haile, Mitiku; Poesen, J.; Moeyersons, J.; Deckers, J. (2008). "Soils and land use in the Tigray highlands (Northern Ethiopia)".Land Degradation and Development.19 (3):257–274.doi:10.1002/ldr.840.S2CID128492271.
^Miruts Hagos and colleagues (2019). "Geosites, Geoheritage, Human-Environment Interactions, and Sustainable Geotourism in Dogu'a Tembien".Geo-trekking in Ethiopia's Tropical Mountains. GeoGuide. SpringerNature. pp. 3–27.doi:10.1007/978-3-030-04955-3_1.ISBN978-3-030-04954-6.S2CID199095921.
