Determining Temperature Extreme in Warri City, Niger-Delta Region, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Climate change and global warming which is also known as a change in Earth’s overall climate or rising temperature have taken centre stage in international concerns, several fora and treaties have been observed with a view of stemming trend, in rising temperatures. This study evaluated ten years of maximum and minimum annual temperature of Warri in Nigeria between (2005 and 2015) to determine trends and identified extreme fluctuation in temperature. Data used for this study were sourced from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency’s Zonal Office, Warri. An objective method for determining temperature extreme has been used. Least square linear regression equation has been used to estimate temperature that would be equalled or surpassed 1%, 5% and 10% of the hours at any given location during the warmest and coldest months of the year. These equations are based on an index calculated from the three readily available parameters; the mean monthly temperature, the mean daily maximum temperature for the month and the mean daily minimum temperature for the month. The warmest month in Warri was March with a mean monthly temperature of 33.9 while the coldest month was July with mean monthly of 25.8.