Brace Up For Intense Harmattan In December And January – NiMet

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency has warned that most parts of Nigeria would experience intense hazy weather conditions, otherwise known as harmattan, in December 2017 and January 2018.

The Director-General of NiMet, Prof. Sani Mashi, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja that the North Eastern part of the country had begun to witness hazy conditions.
Mashi said that the north-easterly wind, one of the two air masses that controlled the country’s climate, had begun moving inward from the North Eastern part of the country in the last couple of days.

He said:

“Harmattan is definitely going to set in very soon and it has already started setting in the northeastern part of the country.
“The air mass is moving towards the country from northeastern direction, so from December and January it will cover virtually all the country.
“That is why we are predicting that in December and January, there is going to be much problem of dust and haze in most parts of the country.
“Normally, it last for about 70 days and the effect will be from one condition to another because there are some local conditions that could be modified.
“So you will discover that some locations that are open that do not have hills, there could be local disturbance that would not allow the flow of air in that location.
“And because of that you will discover that air will be flowing and therefore the haze will be more intense.
“But where you have hills that could be disturbing the flow of the northeasterly, it will be modified and the impact of harmattan will be a little bit less compared to other locations.”

Mashi explained while the air mass from the South Western part is moist and facilitated rainfall, the north-easterly air mass is normally dry and dusty thereby giving rise to hazy conditions.

He disclosed that the weather had changed in different parts of the country, saying that atmosphere over most parts were more dry and dusty than being cloudy.
According to him, this situation will continue up till December and January in different parts of the country and it is expected to be more serious in the northern part.
He said:

“Normally, there are two major air masses that are controlling the climate of the country.
“There is the air mass that comes from the northeastern part and there is the air mass that comes from the southwestern part of the country.
“The one that comes from the southwestern part of the country is moist and it brings rainfall and then the one that comes from the northeastern part of the country is dry and dusty.
“So, what happen is when you have the south-westerly operating in the Nigeria, you will discover that most part of the country would be covered by rain.
“As soon as it ceases, it will withdraws and then you will see the northeasterly.”

The NiMet boss said cessation of rainfall had occurred in many parts of the North, adding that its impact on food production was yet to be ascertained since farmers were yet to give feedback.
He expressed optimism that the impact of early cessation on crop would be minimal considering the early warning from NiMet in its 2017 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction.
According to him, because of the alert given and early warning, a lot of farmers actually planted crops with early maturity in order to avoid this.
Mashi added:


“It has now happened that a number of them have either harvested or about harvesting the crops here.”