The start of the growing season in Northern Nigeria

✍ Scribed by Patrick Benoit

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1977
• Weight: 506 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-1571
• DOI: 10.1016/0002-1571(77)90042-5

✦ Synopsis

Benoit, P., 1977.

The start of the growing season in northern Nigeria. Agric. Meteorol., 18: 91--99.

The start of the growing season in northern Nigeria may be defined as the date when accumulated rainfall exceeds and remains greater than one half of potential evapotranspiration for the remainder of the growing season, provided that no dry spell longer than five days occurs immediately after this date. The mean start of the growing season of locations in northern Nigeria is related to latitude, in that the growing season starts later at northern locations than at southern locations. However, no basis has been found to predict the start of the growing season in the north from the start at southern locations. The reason for this is that there is considerable year to year variation in the northward progression of the rains. The growing season may safely begin in 80% of years when accumulated rainfall for the year reaches 75 mm at Samaru and at Kano, in the north of Nigeria, and when accumulated rainfall reaches 100 mm at Mokwa, in central Nigeria. In other years "false starts" of the rainy season give heavy early rainfalls, which are followed by long dry spells. Most "false starts" occur before the mean start of the growing season at each location.