Analysis of Seasonal Precipitation Rate in Nigeria Using Dataset from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze the seasonal precipitation rate using dataset retrieved from TRMM over Nigeria. The Seasons evaluated are December to February (DJF), March to May (MAM), June to August (JJA) and September to October (SON) using ten years (December 2009-November 2019) data acquired from TRMM data base. The result shows that, the precipitation rate differs and these ranges from light precipitation from the northern regions to heavy precipitation in the southern regions. For the DJF season, the northern regions experience little or no precipitation especially during the dry season. Meanwhile, during the MAM, JJA and SON seasons, the northern regions experiences light to moderate (0 ≤ R < 5 mm/h) precipitation rate according to World Meteorological Organization (WMO) while the southern regions experience moderate to heavy (0.1 ≤ R ≥ 0.5 mm/h) precipitation rate with its peak at MAM and SON seasons which correspond to the wet months/season and early dry season. It follows that the result obtained from this work is in agreement with the WMO. The result from this work will provide an insight on precipitation event which in turn, will help in decision making on various ways of adaptation and also, planning of outdoors events such as agricultural activities (food securities), sport activities and also in the telecommunication and aviation as increase in the rate precipitation increases the attenuation on communication link.