WMO Day: Early Rains Are Not The Beginning Of Rainfall Predictions-NIMET DG

The Director General of the Nigerian Meteorological  Agency (NiMet), Professor Sani Marshi has reaffirmed the warning of NiMet that early rains should not be considered as the beginning of rainfall and should not be used by farmers or stakeholders in the agricultural sector as a variable for planning their yearly activity.

Professor Sani Marshi disclosed this when he was taking questions from journalists at the celebration of World Meteorological Day, WMO, held on March 23, 2019.

The DG said that the agency, in its 2019 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) had issued an early warning to farmers and others who depended on rainfall for other uses, to be guided accordingly with the early start of rains. He also said that the agency still stand by what it had predicted, adding that NiMet would continue to monitor the climate and inform the public on any new developments.

“In our seasonal rainfall prediction, we predicted that there would be late on set of rains in many parts of the country.

“We still stand by that prediction and most of questions asked, the answers are in the SRP 2019.

The rain you are having now is caused by weather variations that occurs from time to time.

“This is not an onset of growing season; therefore farmers are advised to be patient because we predicted that rainy season would commence in April” he said.

Earlier in his welcome address, Professor Marshi disclosed that NiMet was ready to meet Nigeria’s weather and climate challenges in 2019 and beyond.

He noted that climate change has posed serious challenges of extreme weather to the environment and is the single most prominent risk.

The DG, explained that though 2018 was found to be one of the four warmest years on record without an El Niño, 2019 on the other hand as an El Niño year has already began with pockets of extreme events in form of severe storms currently ravaging Mozambique and parts of Australia.

“On Thursday 14 March 2019, one of the Worst Tropical Storms (Cyclone Idai) made a landfall in Mozambique where it almost completely destroyed Beira, Coastal town and also adjacently affected Zimbabwe and Malawi which resulted into loss of hundreds of lives and destruction of livelihoods. “However, NiMet is positioned to continue to meet our weather and climate challenges in 2019 and beyond”, Mashi remarked.

He stated that long-term climate change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions commit the planet to a warmer future, with more extreme weather and water shocks.

According to him, “NiMet has continued to invest efforts to support Climate-smart decision-making to increase resilience and adaptation to changing climate.

“In the last two years, the Agency has invested heavily in the establishment and upgrading of meteorological observatories to increase the dense network of observing stations across the country and has found it richly rewarding in terms of data generation for improved service delivery to all sectors of the economy”, he disclosed.

In his opening remark, the Ag. Director, Weather Forecasting Service, Mr. Zakariyau Darazo, noted that the weather and climate data, products and services being produced by NiMet are critical for combating Climate Change through adaptation and mitigation strategies.

“NiMet is ever committed to providing timely, accurate and reliable weather and climate information in order to guide policy and decision-making as well provide weather and climate advisories to our stakeholders across all sectors of national endeavours that contribute to the development of our dear nation. We do this in fulfilment of the mandates of the Agency as contained in its Establishment Act of 2003”.

In his good will message, Mr Bernard Gomez, WMO’s Representative for North, Central and West Africa, commended the government of Nigeria and NiMet for their support for the organisation and services to humanity.

Gomez noted that climate change had led to an increase in extreme weather conditions at local levels as well as at national and global levels which according to him, may still become intense later in the year.

“Human kind had continued to strive on this planet because they had been able to adapt to the climate.

“The climate is changing very fast and this as usual is not good and we need to show greater commitment and invest more resources towards observing, monitoring and forecasting the climate system in order to provide early warning services to communities.

“It is however gratifying to note that NiMet is fully committed and properly positioned to provide quality information on the weather, climate and other environmental variables both within and outside of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“I wish to therefore express my deep gratitude to the country on behalf of the WMO, the officials of NiMet for their several contributions to this nation and to the world at large,” he said.

There were dance by the Tiv Dance Troupe, quiz competition by some secondary schools.

The World Meteorological Day is a yearly celebration by more than 190 member countries of WMO. The theme for 2019 is “The Sun, the Earth and the Weather”.