EVALUATING CLIMATE VARIABILITY FROM RAINFALL AND TEMPERATURE: INSIGHT FROM NIAMEY AND MARADI IN NIGER

Authors : Makbule Nisa MENCET YELBOGA, Abdoul-aziz Hamidou TAFFA, Cengiz SAYİN

Pages : 60-73

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Publication Date : 2019-06-30

Article Type : Review Paper

Abstract :Niger is a landlocked West African country located between parallels 11° 37 and 23° 33 Northern latitudes, meridians 16 °East longitudes and 0 °10 West longitude. The country covers 1,267,000 kilometers square and is divided into eight main regions; Agadez, Diffa, Dosso, Maradi, Tahoua, Zinder, Tillabery, and Niamey. From a climate point of view, the country has three different zones; Northern Saharan arid zone with total annual rainfall average of 20-75 mm, Saharan-tropical zone 75-160 mm and the Sahelian zone with 250-800 mm. Therefore, the rainfall patterns vary from one region to another and within the same region. This article analyzed regional climate variability in the regions of Niamey and Maradi during 1979-2013s. To do this, intra-regional and inter-regional variability of monthly temperature, total annual rainfall, monthly solar radiation, monthly wind speed, and monthly relative humidity have been evaluated by Buishand’s Test in the series analysis.  The findings a time lag in climate variability among these two regions; all climate variables’ variability firstly occurs in Niamey and then Maradi except for wind speed and solar radiation.  Accordingly, the region of Niamey is more fragile than the region of Maradi. Lastly, Niger faces climate variability which could compromise its rural small-scale farmers’ rainfed agriculture and livestock’s activities. 
Keywords : Climate variability, Maradi, Niamey