Re-defining the Climatic Zones over Nigeria
I. O. Agada *
Department of Physics, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi. Benue State, Nigeria.
S. I. Aondoakaa
Department of Physics, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi. Benue State, Nigeria.
E. J. Eweh
Department of Physics, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi. Benue State, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aims: This study aimed at identifying climatic zones over Nigeria.
Duration of Study: Daily air temperature data for the 36 states and FCT in Nigeria were obtained from National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) for the period of thirty-seven (37) years (1984-2020).
Method: Several hierarchical clustering procedures–single linkages, complete linkage, average distance within clusters, average distance between clusters, centroid clustering, median linkage and Ward’s method were used in this study.
Results: Based on the findings, median linkage, complete linkage and Ward’s clustering method solutions seems more realistic. The application of cluster analysis, revealed five climate zones (cluster) over Nigeria. Cluster 1 covers Plateau state only while cluster 2 covers three south-west states and one north-west state (Kaduna). Cluster 3 covers all the states in south-east, south-south (except Cross River), North-central (except Kogi and Kwara), Bauchi in North-west and ogun and Oyo in South-west. Cluster 4 covers one state in south-south (Cross River), South-south (Lagos), two states in North-central (Kogi and Kwara), three states in North-east (Adamawa, Gombe and Taraba) and four states in North-west (Jigawa, Kano, Kastina and Zamfara). Lastly cluster 5 covers two states in North-east (Borno and Yobe) and North-west (Kebbi and Sokoto).
Conclusion: Our findings clearly show that cluster analysis can be applied to identify similar weather/climate state from air temperature data.
Keywords: Clustering techniques, climate zones, temperature, hierarchical cluster analysis