Shift in rainfall pattern may cause floods in 2018, NiMet warns

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has warned that many parts of the country were likely to experience flooding due to a shift in rainfall pattern caused by climate change.
The Director-General of NiMet, Prof.
Sani Mashi, who gave the warning at the weekend in Abuja said that distortions had occurred in the pattern of rainfall leading to variation in the amount of rain that was expected in the country.
He explained that in line with NiMet’s 2018 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP), so much water would be made available on the surface between the last week of July and end of August.
According to him, once it rains, the ground cannot comfortably contain and absorb the water making it to runoff and resulting in so much water on the surface.
Mashi said that the flash points of flooding had been identified and presented to the public by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), the agency responsible for flood monitoring.
He explained that NiMet and NIHSA were working together to ensure that accurate flood information was made available to the public to minimise the impact of flood in the country.
It will be recalled that NIHSA had in its 2018 Annual Flood Outlook, announced that 380 Local Government Areas in 35 states would experience flooding this year.
According to NIHSA, flooding will be high in about 78 LGAs, although the situation will generally not be as severe as what the country experienced in 2012.
The Acting Director-General, NIHSA, Olayinka Ogunwale, during the presentation in May, stated that the government had been issuing warnings to residents in flood-prone areas to relocate from such locations.
“It is important to let those in flood-prone areas know that the country will experience flooding in 2018 and people in such locations should evacuate,’’ Ogunwale said.