Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Abstract:
Meteorological data collected in Port Harcourt, Nigeria covering a period of ten years, 2001 - 2010 is here presented. The purpose of the work is to correlate the monthly variation of weather conditions of rainfall, humidity, temperature, solar radiation, and evaporation with each and to deduce climatic changes over the ten-year period. The analysis of the observations shows that the mean maximum monthly temperature is 31.29oC. The mean minimum monthly temperature is 21.80oC. Generally, the mean annual maximum temperature is 31.03o, while mean annual minimum temperature is 22.54oC. The mean monthly solar radiation is observed to be 10.55mJm-2/day, while mean annual solar radiation is 9.25mJm-2/day. The mean maximum monthly humidity is 112.47%, while mean annual minimum humidity is 69.08%. For evaporation, the mean annual evaporation is 97.27mm, while mean monthly evaporation is 111.31mm. Monthly rainfall is 203.03mm while annual rainfall is 200.45mm. Port Harcourt in Nigeria being part of the global community, the analysis of this work shows variability and uncertainty of the regions' climatic parameters over the ten-year period. The results of this work could be integrated into local and national data bank for further research work. Moreover, the results could also provide input for climate risk information, local and national planning and decision-making for sustainable development in the areas of agriculture, aviation, health, weather forecasting.

Keywords: evaporation, temperature, rainfall, humidity, solar radiation, Port Harcourt, Niger Delta, Nigeria

Download full paper