Climate Change, Trend Analysis of Temperature in Yola, North East Nigeria

Abstract

Climate change is causing temperature and rainfall patterns to change in most parts of the globe. Consequently, a trend analysis of temperature in Yola, North East Nigeria, between 1975 and 2018 was carried out using the Mann-Kendall trend test to determine the trend of temperature in the region and hence determine the impact of climate change in the region. The data on temperature was obtained from the archive of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet). The Mann Kendall’s statistics of maximum temperature showed that the highest maximum temperature recorded within the period is 38.7˚C while the lowest maximum temperature is 33.3˚C, the test also showed a Kendall’s tau value of -0.392 with a P value of 0.000 indicating that maximum temperature is decreasing while the Mann Kendall’s statistics on minimum temperature showed that the highest minimum temperature recorded within the period was 24.0˚C while the lowest minimum temperature recorded is 21.4˚C. The results revealed that climate change is not very pronounced in the region as the maximum temperature is decreasing while the minimum temperature is increasing in the region. This result implies that the region is becoming warmer and is likely to experience an increase in rainfall. It is therefore recommended that residences build houses that allow for good ventilation to minimise heat stress, and residences should not build or farm on waterways to avoid flooding and destruction of houses and farm produce during the rainy season.