Abstract

Most available data on climate change are mainly global whereas the effects are more at regional levels. It is on this premise that this study investigated the regional evidences of climate change using Nigeria as a case study. Mean annual air temperature from 30 synoptic stations between 1901 and 2005 were collected from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Lagos and Meteorological Department in some Airports. The data were divided into three climatic periods namely 1901-1935, 1936-1970 and 1971-2005 for the purpose of comparison. Time series, correlation, least square range test, ANOVA and isotherm maps were some statistical tools used to analyze the data. The results show that air temperature is steadily increasing especially from the 1970s. Between 1901 - 1935 and 1936 - 1970 climatic periods, temperature anomalies were below the 1970 - 2005 normal, but 22 years (63%) out of the 35 years were above the normal between 1971 and 2005. The temperature anomalies shows that climate change signal is stronger as from the 1970s.The rate of temperature increase is higher in the semi-arid region than the coastal areas of Nigeria. The current available pieces of evidence show that Nigeria, like most parts of the world, is experiencing the basic features of climate change.

Key words: Climate change, global warming, Nigeria, climate change signal, temperature.