Study of Rainfall Distribution Pattern Changes and their Relationship with Atmospheric Parameters at Enugu and Kano States using Regression Model

Abstract

This study investigates rainfall distribution pattern changes and their relationship with atmospheric parameters (temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and total cloud cover) at Enugu and Kano states in Nigeria. Rainfall describes the amount of water droplets that are descending onto the surface of the Earth inform of rain. It is a discontinuous quantity and an indispensible element in the hydrological cycle, which involves the cyclic movement of water from below, on and above the surface of the Earth. Daily rainfall and atmospheric parameters data records of the two locations were used for the analysis using regression model. Results indicated that there are robust relationships between rainfall and atmospheric parameters in the study areas. Though, a negative regression coefficient value for temperature was obtained at Enugu, the result showed that it has the greatest contribution to rainfall distribution pattern changes than the other atmospheric parameters in this study. On the other hand, the result showed that wind speed has the greatest contribution to rainfall distribution pattern changes at Kano than other atmospheric parameters in this present study. This present study suggests that there is evidence of differences in rainfall distribution pattern changes and their relationship with the atmospheric parameters in Enugu and Kano states. This implies that there were different levels of modification of rainfall distribution pattern changes at Enugu and Kano states by temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and total cloud cover respectively, and their records may provide useful information that may be utilized to monitor rainfall related activities within a given geographical area.