Temperature Variability Comparison Using Mann-Kendall Test

Abstract

Climate change in terms of extreme temperature has been a global concern, and Nigeria has not been an exception. However, analysis of climatic trend comparison between the northern and southern part of Nigeria, especially in terms of temperature variability is rarely found among the available works of literature. Thus, this work therefore analyzed and compared the average temperature trends of six stations each from the far north and south of Nigeria for 30 years (1981 to 2010) using statistical analysis and the Mann-Kendall test, as a nonparametric procedure in assessing the temperature trends. However, from the results of the analysis, it was observed that at a 1% significance level, the Mann-Kendall test of the temperature trend in all the six stations considered from the south was rising significantly, while for those in the north there was no significant temperature rise in five of the six stations considered which nevertheless dropped to four stations at 5% significant level. Moreover, correlations were observed to exist only amongst stations with significant temperature trends. Hence, based on this observation, it can be concluded that the climate in the southern part of Nigeria is more prone to extreme temperature variation than that of the northern part.