Abstract
The study investigates the trends in temperature in the Upper and Lower Niger Basin Development Authority Areas using standardized Anomaly Index, Gaussian Low Pass and Spearman’s correlation coefficient. From the data collected and analyzed, the mean annual temperature and mean annual maximum temperature demonstrated pronounced temporal increasing trend in the period 1951-2010 while the mean annual minimum temperature showed no trend. The rate of increase in mean annual temperature, mean annual maximum and minimum temperatures was 0.45°C, 0.40°C and 0.20°C respectively. The mean annual maximum temperature warmed faster than the mean annual minimum leading to increase in diurnal range of temperature. The annual temperature anomaly in the study area tracks the observed anomalies for the Northern Hemisphere in the 20th century. The decadal temperature increase is very small particularly as from 1980.
Highlights
Global warming is occurring worldwide and almost all climate scientists today believe that it is primarily caused by increases in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere produced by human activities such as burning of fossil fuels and deforestation [1,2]
The study investigates the trends in temperature in the Upper and Lower Niger Basin Development Authority Areas using standardized Anomaly Index, Gaussian Low Pass and Spearman’s correlation coefficient
The mean annual maximum temperature warmed faster than the mean annual minimum leading to increase in diurnal range of temperature
Summary
Global warming is occurring worldwide and almost all climate scientists today believe that it is primarily caused by increases in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere produced by human activities such as burning of fossil fuels and deforestation [1,2]. Global warming is certain as it is evident from shift in temperature and precipitation patterns, widespread melting of snow and ice, increasing incidents of weather extremes (e.g. Flood, drought, heat wave) and rising mean sea level. Observations of surface air temperature in weather stations indicate that global mean surface air temperature increased about 0.4 ̊C since early 1970’s. Parner [3] concluded that the earth’s average surface temperature rose by 0.74 over the period 1960-2005 with a more rapid warming trend over the past 50 years. Surface temperature has increased by about 0.7 ̊C since the beginning of Industrial Revolution and this trend is accelerating with average global mean temperature rising at 0.2 ̊C per decade [3]. Widespread changes in extreme temperatures have been observed over the last 50 years. Current estimates by the Climate Research Unit show 2005 as the second year behind 1998, with 2003 and 2010 as the third warmest year (http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/Retrieved 2011)
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