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Tag: Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet)

  • NiMet predicts sunny, cloudy weather for Tuesday

    NiMet predicts sunny, cloudy weather for Tuesday

    The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), has predicted sunny and hazy weather conditions over Central States of the country on Tuesday with partly cloudy conditions over Lokoja, Makurdi and Ilorin.

    NiMet’s Weather Outlook by its Central Forecast Office (CFO), on Monday in Abuja, also predicted day and night temperatures in the range of 29 degrees Celsius to 36 degrees Celsius and 13 to 22 degrees Celsius.

    The agency predicted that Southern States would experience cloudiness over the inland throughout the day with cloudy conditions over the coastal cities in the morning hours.

    It also predicted localised thunderstorms over Yenogoa, Port-Harcourt, Calabar, Warri and Benin in the afternoon and evening period with day and night temperatures in the range of 32 degrees Celsius to 36 and 21 to 25 degrees Celsius.

    According to NiMet, Northern States will experience sunny and hazy conditions throughout the forecast period with day and night temperatures in the range of 34 degrees Celsius to 38 and 15 to 20 degrees Celsius, respectively.

    “Sunny and hazy conditions are most likely over the north, down to the central cities, while isolated thunderstorms are expected over some parts of the coastal cities within the next 24 hours,” NiMet predicted.

  • NiMet to establish meteorological infrastructure in universities

    NiMet to establish meteorological infrastructure in universities

    The Nigerian Meteorological Agency ( NiMet ), says it is set to establish meteorological infrastructure in 34 universities in Nigeria.

    The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Prof. Sani Mashi said this in a statement issued by Mr Muntari Ibrahim, the General Manager, Public Relations Unit, NiMet on Thursday in Abuja.

    Mashi said the establishment of meteorological infrastructure was in furtherance of its target to increase the network of meteorological stations and boost its data collection.

    The director-general spoke when he visited the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission ( NUC ), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed.

    Mashi said that NiMet had embarked on an aggressive programme to massively expand the network of meteorological stations in the country to about 1000 by December.

    According to him, one of the strategies the agency will employ to achieve this is to partner with Nigerian universities.

    “Part of the things we said we would do is to see how we can extend our services to the Nigerian universities.

    “NiMet has carried out an independent assessment of the universities and looked at the existing meteorological stations that these universities maintain.

    “One of the things that are missing is the linkage between the universities and the agency.

    “NiMet has the expertise and knows what should be in place, while the universities have the capacity to teach, but may not have the technical competence to know the best equipment for the best results.
    “We feel that what we need to do, we need to come up with a way to help the universities get their infrastructure upgraded,’’ he said.

    Mashi said the partnership with the universities was a win-win situation, explaining that once the meteorological stations were upgraded, they would start generating data.

    “This partnership according to him will expand the agency’s network of stations, because the universities’ infrastructure has been upgraded.’’

    The NUC executive secretary Rasheed, assured NiMet that the commission would fully support the initiative and promised to talk to the Vice Chancellors about it.

    He commended NiMet for the initiative and expressed the hope that universities in the country would be covered by 2018 as well as Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

    NAN

  • NiMet predicts partly cloudy, hazy weather for Saturday

    NiMet predicts partly cloudy, hazy weather for Saturday

    Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has predicted partly cloudy weather condition over central states of the country on Saturday morning.

    NiMet’s Weather Outlook by its Central Forecast Office (CFO) on Friday in Abuja also predicted thunderstorm over Abuja, Lokoja, Makurdi, Lafia, Ibi, Mambilla and environs in the afternoon and evening hours.

    It added that the central states would have day and night temperatures in the range of 29 to 34 degrees celsius and 18 to 24 degrees celsius.

    The agency predicted that southern states would experience cloudy conditions in the morning, with chances of scattered thunderstorms over Calabar, Eket, Port Harcourt and environs.

    It also predicted chances of localised thunderstorms over the region in the afternoon and evening hours, with day and night temperatures of 28 to 33 and 21 to 24 degrees celsius.

    According to NiMet, northern states will experience morning hazy condition over Yelwa, Gusau, Katsina, Kano and Sokoto and dust haze in the range of three to four kilometres in Maiduguri, Potiskum, Dutse and Nguru.

    It noted that later in the day, most parts of the north would experience sunny and hazy conditions, with day and night temperatures of 34 to 39 and 19 to 22 degrees celsius.

    It stated that dust haze with visibility range of 3-5km would prevail in extreme northern cities, with sunny and hazy conditions, partly cloudy conditions with chances of localised thunderstorms over the central and southern region in the next 24 hours.

     

     

  • World Bank, UNDP seek NiMet’s support on climate services

    World Bank, UNDP seek NiMet’s support on climate services

    The World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP ) have solicited the support of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency ( NiMet ) in their climate and weather services initiatives in some developing countries.

    A statement by Mrs Theresa Ushie, Assistant General Manager, Public Relations, NiMet, on Tuesday in Abuja said the beneficiary nations in Africa were Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia, and Singapore in Asia.

    Prof. Sani Mashi, Director-General of NiMet said the synergy was in recognition of the agency’s track record in providing quality meteorological services and attainment of ISO 9001:2015 certification of its aeronautical services.

    Mashi disclosed this on Tuesday when he received a delegation from the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS ) in Abuja.

    He said that NiMet was mandated to promote the application of meteorological information to address development in accordance with the provisions of the Global Framework for Application of Climate Services (GFCS).

    NiMet boss disclosed that Nigeria had produced a National Framework for the Application of Climate Services ( NFACS ), which according to him, is awaiting presidential approval.

    “NiMet is providing support services to Liberia and Sierra Leone through daily weather forecast services; provides technical support to the ECOWAS Commission; and training of meteorologists in Benin Republic and the Gambia, among others.

    “NiMet is the first, and the only meteorological agency in Africa to receive the International Standards Organisation, ISO 9001:2015 certification for the provision of meteorological services for the aeronautical sector.

    Mashi, however, pledged NiMet’s continuous support for ECOWAS meteorological programmes.

    Earlier, Dr Johnson Boanuh, Director of Environment, ECOWAS Commission, who led the delegation, said they were in NiMet to acquaint themselves and their programmes with the new management.

    Boanuh, while commending NiMet, expressed appreciation for the agency’s support for the ECOWAS commission and the Regional Office for World Meteorological Organisation ( WMO ) in Nigeria.

    He disclosed that the WMO and GFCS Secretariat in Geneva had established an office in Dakar, Senegal to support and facilitate the establishment of NFACS in all ECOWAS member states.

    According to him, part of the programme drawn to facilitate the establishment of the NFACS is geared towards strengthening the capacities of the various National Hydro-Meteorological Services to meet their obligations.

    Boanuh said the body had commenced the needs assessment programme for ECOWAS member states, which according to him, will be executed in phases.

  • FAAN, NiMet get international certification – Minister

    FAAN, NiMet get international certification – Minister

    Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria ( FAAN ) has received international certification for Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, from Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA ).

    The Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika while receiving the certification of FAAN and Nigerian Meteorological Agency ( NiMet ) in
Abuja on Tuesday, said both certificates were huge achievements toward security and safety in the aviation sector.

    He said that Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, was the first international Airport in Nigeria to meet the requirement by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and NCAA regulations.

    “This is indeed a huge achievement as far as we are concerned, Mr President had told us to secure this country and manage it, therefore, inline with his vision we align in building institutions and getting them to work well.
    “Because once that is achieved it means that we are managing the country well, strong institutions will definitely begets strong nation.

    The country had tried time and again to certify our airports in the past.

    “It is a global requirements by International Civil Aviation Organisation ( ICAO ) convention and Aerodrome requires that airports must be standardised.
    “Under different ownership, under different cultures and climates, under different conditions all over the world and they must be standardise and they must reflect certain minimum standard of safety and security.

    “This made it very paramount to ensure that our airports are certified.

    “We promised the nation that we will get these airports certified, today by the grace of God we have achieved that milestone,” he said.

    According to him, they are beginning to certify the airports with the Murtala Muhammed International Airport been the first to be certified by NCAA through ICAO standards.

    He said this certification borders on safety which is a huge achievement in making sure that the nation institutions are strong, dynamic, focused and sensitive.

    Sirika, however, commended the Ministry of Transportation for making the certification achievable and possible, stating that they hope to get certification for Nnamdi Nzikiwe airport before the end of the year.

    He said they would ensure that both international and domestic airports get certified which would increase the value, the insurance would be low, charges and ticket would be lower as a result of the certification.

    The Minister of State noted that the world will be at peace to know that Nigeria aviation is secured with flight operation being safe and secured within and outside the country.

    He said that Mr President and the National Council had approved the concessioning of four major airports in the country which are Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt.

    Sirika further said that Nigeria will host the International Civil Aviation Organisation World Aviation Forum taking place on the Nov. 20 to Nov. 22 in Abuja, which is the first time the forum will be held outside Canada.

    Speaking earlier, Managing Director of FAAN, Saleh Dunoma said FAAN has successfully completed the Aerodrome certification process of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

    He said that the Aerodrome certification is an international requirement with the primary objective to ensure that all international Airports meets international safety standards.

    “Aerodrome certification means ensuring the standardisation and harmonisation of airport service, facilities and procedures, as well as ensuring uniformity in safety.”

    He said that the drive toward certification of Nigeria airports was yielding positive result as Nigeria was implementing one of the critical safety targets.

    He said that Nigeria started the process of certification 11 years ago but due to several reasons they were unable to certify the airports until now.

    According to him, with the certification of the Murtala Muhammad Airport, they will concentrate on the Nmandi Nzikiwe international Airport in Abuja, then to other airport.

    He said FAAN was committed in the drive to get the aerodrome certification for all the airports in Nigeria.

    Dunoma said that the certification would be renewed after three years, which will be year 2020.

    Director for Western and Central Africa, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)

    Mr Sani Marshi, the Director-General of NiMet presented the International Standard Organisation (ISO) 2015 certification to the minister.

    He said that NiMet was the first in the continent to have been given the international certification in compliance with international best practices.

    He said that this is a huge achievement in the Nigerian aviation sector as Nigeria would become an example to other African countries.

    Mr Mam Sait Jallow, ICAO Regional Director for West and Central Africa, said that both certifications are two key standards related to safety as most of the aircraft accidents are due to issued related to runway safety and also weather conditions.

    “These are really key achievements which we wanted to witness and we won’t stop here because we are still in house and we have to climb on the roofs to publish what we have done.

    “Technically, we have just concluded phase four and as far as certification is concerned, we now need to publish aeronautical information to the world for them to know that the Murtala Mohammed Airport is now certified likewise NiMet,” Jallow said.

  • Demolish Lekki structures to check flooding- NiMet boss

    Demolish Lekki structures to check flooding- NiMet boss

    Prof. Sani Mashi, Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has called for the demolition and reconstruction of structures in Lekki, Lagos state to check annual flooding of the area.

    Mashi made the call during in his paper entitled “Meteorology, flooding and the challenges before the Nigerian Engineers ’’at the 2nd Annual General Meeting/Lecture of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Giri Branch on Tuesday in Abuja.

    According to him, flooding occurs in Nigeria in three main forms, river, urban and coastal flooding.

    “However, flooding is worsened by human activities such as, rapid industrialisation, uncontrolled urbanisation, population growth, unregulated exploitation of natural resources and improper location of infrastructure,’’ he said.

    Mashi stressed that Lekki experienced flooding annually with devastating effects on the lives and property of residents in the peninsula.

    “What we are saying is that, Lekki has been developed; it is at the infrastructure level.  When driving, you will just leave the road and drive into your house.

    “ Lekki is a land belonging to the sea; by implication, Lekki is built on the sea.

    “Therefore, if you are building in the sea, the starting level of the building has to be above the sea, so what needs to be done is to demolish structures in Lekki. If you can’t demolish them, then convert the ground floor to be the base level,’’ Mashi said.

    According to him, if the first floor should now be the starting level for the houses,saying that when flood comes, it will stay at the lower level and will not affect the residents.

    NAN reports that Lekki is a city located to the east of Lagos, adjoining to its west, Victoria Island and Ikoyi districts with the Atlantic Ocean to its south and Lagoon to the north side.

    Mashi is also Nigeria’s Permanent Representative with World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), said if demolition of structures in the area was not possible, residents should take pragmatic action by converting the first floor of the houses to the base level.

    The NiMet boss said there wasalso  need for Nigerian engineers to ensure the design and construction of flood resilient public infrastructure that could withstand the destructive effects of flooding in the country.

    He also called for the strengthening of public infrastructure through stress resilient structural elements, choice of materials, and appropriate choice of technology and efficient supervision of construction.

    Mashi said such method would serve as in-built protective mechanism for the vulnerable public infrastructure, because “we cannot stop flooding from happening.’’

    He emphasised the need for design and construction of adequate drainage systems in both urban and rural settlements to accommodate the volume of water being generated during flooding.

    “There is also need for proper maintenance of the existing drainage systems for sustainable flood control and timely repairs and reconstruction of flood- damaged public infrastructure.

    “There is need for the design and fabrication of basic meteorological instruments to aid meteorological activities, especially in area of weather observation, forecasting and issuance of early warning alerts against flooding.”

    He also called for design,construction and launching into orbit a home-built meteorological satellite to help track real time weather parameters and events.

    He tasked Nigerian engineers to be abreast of the reality of climate change by providing and mitigating solutions in their designs, productions, fabrications and construction activities.

    “Public infrastructure should be designed with the reality of climate change.

    “Collaborations between relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should be encouraged to advance the practice of engineering and meteorology in Nigeria.

    “For instance, NiMet and NASDA can collaborate to start preliminary discussion on the design of first meteorological satellite.Engineers from the two agencies can drive the process’’

  • Thunderstorms, cloudy weather to prevail on Wednesday – NiMet

    Thunderstorms, cloudy weather to prevail on Wednesday – NiMet

    The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has predicted morning thunderstorms over the Central states on Wednesday with isolated thunderstorms over Bauchi, Jos, Kaduna, Mambila Plateau, Bida, Ilorin, Lafia and Abuja later in the day.

    NiMet’s Weather Outlook by its Central Forecast Office (CFO) on Tuesday in Abuja also predicted day and night temperatures of 26 to 30 and 16 to 24 degrees Celsius respectively.

    The agency predicted that Southern states would experience cloudy conditions over the southwestern cities with prospects of isolated rains over the Southeast during the morning hours.

    It also predicted prospects of rains over the region in the afternoon and evening hours with day and night temperatures of 27 to 30 and 21 to 24 degrees Celsius respectively.

    According to NiMet, Northern states will experience morning cloudy conditions over Sokoto, Yelwa and Gusau with prospects of isolated thunderstorms over Katsina, Kano and the Northeastern region.

    “During the afternoon period, Northeast and parts of Northwest Sokoto, Kebbi and Kano will experience isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon with day and night temperatures of 29 to 30 and 21 to 22 degrees Celsius respectively.

    “Increased atmospheric instability leading to buildup of weather systems over the Country is expected to enhance rainfall activities within the next 24 hours,’’ NiMet predicted.

     

  • Flood kills two, ravages 46 communities in Abia – SEMA official

    Flood kills two, ravages 46 communities in Abia – SEMA official

    Heavy flooding has severely ravaged at least 46 communities in Abia, killing two children, an official of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said.

    Mr Sunny Jackson, the Head, Planning, Forecasting and Operations of the agency, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Umuahia on Monday.

    Jackson said that the children drowned when flood submerged their home in Akoli Ohazu Autonomous Community in Aba South Local Government Area (LGA) sometime in July.

    He said that SEMA gathered that the mother of the deceased was busy trying to salvage her property when the flood surged into her house and drowned the children.

    Jackson further said that the 46 affected communities cut across 13 local government areas of the state and that Aba South Local Government area topped the list with 11 communities.

    He said that Aba North came second, followed by Obingwa, Osisioma and Ugwunagbo council areas.

    “Some residents of the affected communities can no longer access their homes because their houses had been completely submerged.

    “Some of the communities have been cut off from their neighbours because flood has washed off their roads.”

    He said that the situation in Abia confirmed the predictions by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMeT) and Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency about flooding this year.

    According to him, Abia is one of the states that received alert about the impending flooding in the country this year.

    “This is why I consider it a pure fallacy for anyone to say that there is no flooding in Abia.”

    Jackson expressed delight that succour would soon come to the affected communities.

    He said that Abia was among the 16 states slated to benefit from the N1.6 billion Federal Government Flood Intervention Fund.

    The SEMA official said that the agency was committed to disaster-risk management in the state but expressed regret that the agency’s operations were adversely affected by shortage of personnel and logistics.

    According to him, the agency is in dire need of equipment such as Geographical Positioning System, digital cameras, trucks and ambulances for efficient
    service delivery.

    Jackson described flooding as a natural disaster but noted that it could be escalated or checked through human actions or inactions.

    “Building on flood planes and waterways, deforestation, over-grazing, improper channelling of water, blocking of drains and flood channels are capable of triggering the disaster.”

    He said that to checking the disaster required re-afforestation, desilting of the drains and prohibiting the erection of structures on waterways, among other measures.

  • Flooding can impact negatively on food production, health – NiMet DG

    Flooding can impact negatively on food production, health – NiMet DG

    The Director-General, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof. Sani Mashi, says flooding in some parts of the country can impact negatively on crop production and the health of Nigerians.

    Mashi, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said that it was likely that a lot of crops would be submerged in many states.

    He, however, said the agency predicted occurrence of flooding during the early part of the raining season in 2017.

    He said, “The implications of this are simple and very clear; you know that crops receive fixed amount of water in form of rain to be able to grow over a certain period.

    “If that amount is exceeded, it can affect the productivity of the crop and if that amount is less than what the crop requires, it means the crop performance will be impeded.

    “It means the implication on crop production is quite obvious; a number of crops would be submerged, some will be forced to accommodate water that they cannot accommodate.

    “It will definitely affect their performance and affect food production in different parts of the country,’’ he said.

    Mashi explained that flooding could also affect health because it could encourage disease-carrying vectors or organisms to breed faster as a result of excess water on the land surface.

    He also said that there had been reported cases of water borne diseases in some parts of the country, in line with NiMet’s warning during its 2017 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP).

    “When you look at health, the problem we normally encounter, especially when you have flooding, is that a lot of things that need not to be carried by water will now be forced to be carried.

    “For instance, sewage and things on the dump site will be washed and then the water sources, which a lot of people rely on, will be contaminated.

    “And because water will remain over land surface for long, you have very fertile ground for vectors that are supposed to be spreading water borne diseases to breed.

    “Definitely, when you have a situation like this, the health sector will be affected as much as the agriculture sector will be affected.

    “There are a lot of cases of outbreak of water borne diseases that have been reported in different parts of the country as a result of this.’’

  • Air accidents not linked to weather in decade – NiMet boss

    Air accidents not linked to weather in decade – NiMet boss

    The Director-General, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Prof. Sani Mashi, says there has not been any air traffic accident linked to weather within the last ten years.

    Mashi, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said the agency had enhanced its capacity to monitor weather activities within airports and along flight routes across the country.

    According to Mashi, “Go through the record, you will see that, within the last ten years, there has not been any air traffic accident that has been linked or remotely linked to weather.

    “Why has that been possible? We have increased our capacity to forecast.

    “We have increased our capacity to monitor not (only) directly within the vicinity of the airport, but (also) along the major routes that aircraft fly within the country.

    “We give adequate briefing to those in the aviation industry.’’

    Mashi said that NiMet had also developed strategies to provide timely weather information to farmers in the agriculture sector so as to guide to better them to crop productions.

    He also said that the agency had embarked on sensitisation programme to create awareness on the danger of weather events, especially thunderstorms, rains and temperatures through its quarterly bulletin.

    Mashi said that the agency was currently faced with challenges of inadequate weather stations and activities of vandals in communities where its equipment are located.

    He therefore called on host communities of NiMet installations to support the agency by securing such installations to forestall the negative consequences to air and weather hazards.

    The NiMet boss said the agency had concluded arrangements to commence the provision of forecast services to the oil and gas sector of the economy.

    According to him, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has certified NiMet to extend its services into the sector after evaluation of its technical capability.

    “For the oil and gas sector, we can only provide these services if we are given the necessary clearance by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

    “They said they have to come and audit us to know our capability; whether we have the technical capacity to provide the services.

    “They came and saw what we have and came to the conclusion that we can offer these services. So two months ago, they gave us the clearance.

    “They wrote the oil companies to inform them that NiMet has been given clearance to participate in the sector.

    “Recently, Shell Company advertised that they need a company to provide meteorological services; Shell already contacted us and we are responding to that,’’ he said.