Altitudinal variation of temperature across some selected stations in Nigeria

Abstract

The correlation between mean annual and mean monthly temperatures with altitude and latitude was studied in this paper using data available from 11 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) under the Tropospheric Data Acquisition Network (TRODAN) project of the Centre for Atmospheric Research (CAR), National Space Research and Development Agency, Nigeria. The data was investigated using correlation analysis and linear regression analysis. The results of the findings showed that there was a highly significant negative correlation between temperature and altitude across Nigeria, that is, there was a decrease in temperature with an increasing altitude. However, there was no statistically significant correlation between temperature and latitude at 95 % C.I. Mean temperature for any part of the country may be predicted from the multiple regression equation. Annual Altitudinal Lapse rate, derived from single variable regressions of temperature with altitude is -0.0038 oC/m. It was observed generally that lapse rates are highest in the hottest months of the year (March to May) and Lowest in December to February.