Audu Moses Owoicho¹*, Ejembi Emmanuel² and Omaba Godwin¹

¹Department of Physics, College of Science, Joseph Sarwuan University Makurdi, Nigeria (Formally, Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi), Nigeria

*Corresponding Author: Audu Moses Owoicho, Department of Physics, College of Science, Joseph Sarwuan University Makurdi, Nigeria (Formally, Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi), Nigeria.

Received: October 25, 2021; Published: December 14, 2021

Abstract

Over the years, climatic parameters have been used as climate change indicators to study climate change and its associated extreme climate and extreme events; which are challenges to man and his environment. This paper attempt to evaluate climate extreme in Makurdi, due to the extreme hotness experience in Makurdi and its environs. Daily temperature and precipitation data for 35 years (1979 - 2013), from the Nigeria Meteorological (NIMET) Agency, Lagos were employed in this study. The data was first subjected to normality and homogeneity tests. It was subsequently subjected to strict quality control. The climate indices defined by the ETCCDI was adopted in this study. The climate indices were computed using RClimDex developed by the ETCCDI. Non-parametric Sen’s slope method and Mann-Kendall trend test were used in data analysis. The software R was employed in the statistical analysis at 0.05 significant level. Results revealed significant increase in maximum and minimum temperature and hot extreme temperature indices (p < 0.05). The frequency of warm days (TX90p) and warm nights (TN90p) increased significantly while the reverse is the case with cold days (TX10p) and cold nights (TN10p). These are indications of a warming climate attributed to climate variability and changes. Precipitation extreme indices generally depict decrease in rainfall. These imply that Makurdi and its environs are trending towards a drier and warmer climate, which could be the reason for the observed extreme hotness. Changes in climate indices from 1979 - 2013, as well as yearly and decadal trends were determined. Our results are in conformity with earlier findings and also complement earlier results in the north central region of Nigeria. The findings of this research may likely have great implication on agriculture for which Benue State is known for, as the food basket of the nation and invariably on national development. This study has provided information which is useful to general public, policymakers, system planners and resource managers.

Keywords: Climate Change; Climate Indices; Extreme Events; Climate Extreme; Makurdi; Nigeria

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Citation

Citation: Audu Moses Owoicho., et al. “Investigation of Trends in Climate Extreme Over Makurdi, Nigeria Using Climate Indices". Acta Scientific Clinical Case Reports 2.1 (2022): 15-24.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Audu Moses Owoicho., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.