Relationship between air temperature and rainfall variability of selected stations in Sub-Sahara Africa

Abstract

This current study was conducted on rainfall and air temperature data obtained from the archive of the HelioClim website to determine the relationship between the two parameters. The study aimed at the relationship between rainfall and air temperature. The data of thirty-four (34) years spanning from 1985 to 2019 was analyzed using Mann-Kendal statistics on the trend of the rainfall series while the normality of rainfall series was determined using Kolmogorov- Smirnov test across six southwest stations of Nigeria. The results revealed the highest mean rainfall in Akure (198.9 mm) while the least rainfall in Ado-Ekiti (163.4 mm). The maximum rainfall was in Abeokuta (865.8 mm) with Iwo having the highest disparity in rainfall (SD=148.8 mm) compared with other stations. The skewness in Abeokuta (Skewness = 0.9 mm) was higher compared with Ado-Ekiti, Akure, Ibadan, Ikeja and Iwo with skewness values of 0.7 mm, 0.4 mm, 0.7 mm, 0.6 mm and 0.7 mm, respectively. The maximum air temperature was recorded in Iwo (301.7 K) and the minimum air temperature in Ado-Ekiti (293.3 K). The skewness obtained in Akure (-0.2) and Ikeja (-0.3) was less than zero indicating that air temperature decreased more than it increased in these areas while in other stations, Abeokuta (0.01), Ado-Ekiti (0.22), Ibadan (0.02) and Iwo (0.24), the skewness was greater than zero meaning that air temperature increased more than it decreased in these stations.