TREND ANALYSIS OF TEMPERATURE AND WIND SPEED CHARACTERISTICS OVER FIDII AREA OF MAKURDI, BENUE STATE, NIGERIA
Monday Akpegi Onah1, Sunday Akuratse Akuratse1 Patricia Ali1,Johnson Orfega Mage & Paul Tarzoho2
1Department of Geography, Benue State University, Makurdi
2Department of General Studies, Taraba State College of Health Technology, Takum
Email: aonah@bsum.edu.ng
ABSTRACT
The study analysed trend in temperature and wind speed characteristics over Fidii area of Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State. Temperature and wind speed data for Makurdi synoptic weather station for a period 30 years (1986 and 2015) were acquired from Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Oshodi, Lagos. Least Square Regression Model (LSRM) was used to analyse trend, while Student’s ‘t’ Test statistic was to determine the significance of the trends at 0.05 degree of confidence. Mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation were also employed in data analysis. The result shows that the variation in mean minimumm, maximum and mean temperatures over Fiidi area of Makurdi indicates negative trends which were not significant at 0.05 confidence level. The result further shows that temperatures in Makurdi have periodicity of ten (10) years which means that Makurdi usually go through cooling and warming phases in cyclic pattern of ten years with maximum temperatures currently going through upward oscillation (warming phase) after a downward oscillation of just six years instead of the usual 10-year periodicity. The result generally showed that wind speed over Fiidi, Makurdi varied seasonally during the study period with the months of December – April which constitutes dry season in Makurdi have high wind speed with the highest wind speed of 5.78m/s occurring in the month of April, while the lowest wind speed of 3.52m/s on average occurred in the month of October. Annually, result generally indicates a sharp declining trend in the wind speed in the study area during period with yearly decreasing rate of 0.0485m/s. Wind speed showed greater degree of variability than temperature characteristics. Consequently, the study recommends tree planting so as to ensure moderate temperatures that would enhance physiological comfort of the inhabitants.
Keywords: Temperature, wind speed, Trend and Periodicity
