Rainfall Patterns In A Changing Climate: Example Of Kano And Delta States, Nigeria

Climate is the accumulated and average weather patterns of a locality or region; the statistical properties of atmospheric variables including temperature, precipitation, and wind. The full description is based on long term statistics and includes extremes or deviations from the norm. There is increasing evidence that precipitation patterns have changed worldwide as a result of atmospheric responses to climate change (UNEP, 2007). Data required for this work is rainfall amount measured in millimeters (mm) for twelve months of each year. The rainfall data spanned thirty-five years between 1975 and 2010 for each of the states i.e. Kano and Delta states. The data were sourced from the archival records of the Nigerian MeteorologicalAgency (NIMET) headquarters in Oshodi, Lagos state. In order to analyze the obtained data, both descriptive and inferential statistics will be used for this study. Rainfall was found to be negatively skewed for Kano and positively skewed for Warri. It was observed that rainfall pattern at Warri was heterogeneous, while that of Kano was homogeneous with 89.5 per cent and 10.7 per cent respectively, thus, there is significant evidence of Climate change in the areas that would cause more rainfall in annual totals and consequently reinforce present increasing trends. Since temperature varies in this region; further study is necessary, using temperature and other climatic parameters, to assess climate change and give a more vivid understanding of the weather pattern of the areas.