Friday, 20 April 2012

Abuja weather

image Weather in Abuja comes as 2 or 3  seasons depending on how you look at it – there’s a warm, humid rainy season and a extremely hot dry season and then there is the period between these of the harmattan. 

The rainy season starts in April  - we are getting some rains already - and ends October. During this season day temperatures are around 30 C and night time lows around 22 C. All in all quite pleasant if it wasn’t so wet. I am told the annual rainfall is 1100 -1600 mm, the area being on the windward side of the Jos Plateau.

In the dry season, October to April, day temperatures get into the 40s and night time temperatures can drop to 12 degrees, chilly ! But the cool morning temperatures don’t last long and by 9AM they are climbing back up. I arrived in March towards the end of the hot season, so temperatures are currently falling.

The other weather feature, which I am not looking forward  to,  is the harmattan This comes between the 2 seasons any time from November through March. It is the NE Trade Wind blowing in from the Sahara and covering everywhere in dust and is cold ( even down to 3C) and very dry. These dust storms can severely limit visibility even blocking out the sun for several days, comparable to a heavy fog. It stayed late this year. It was still hanging around when I arrived here in mid March and the dust played havoc with my eyes,nose and face generally for the first couple of weeks. I wish I had my cheche with me :(

For now the heat of the day is bearable, the humidity climbing, currently I’d say ~60%, and the nights are restfully cool giving me plenty of time to find a blanket.

Check out the current weather conditions here.

1 comment:

  1. Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life.

    ReplyDelete