Every region of the world is characterized by a particular type of abiotic factors like weather. And from observation, one can easily find out that weather conditions vary depending on the region.
Therefore, in this topic, I will like us to look into the unique weather or season we Nigerians usually experience.
Possibly, if you have lived in Nigeria or have been there once especially during the happenings of this season, that's between November to March, you must have witnessed the harmattan season in Nigeria.
Like you have read above, the season of harmattan usually commences from early November and persists till the end of March.
Scientists have studied and surmised that the harmattan does arouse during the lowest-sun months. When the subtropical ridge from high pressure stops at the central Sahara desert and when the low-pressure inter-tropical convergence zone persists over the Gulf of Guinea.
In the case of Nigeria, harmattan typically emerges from November which we also speculate as to the inception of the dry season.
This dry season somewhat favors the harmattan period because it boosts the dispersion of fine particles to the environment thus, promoting dry and dusty Northeast trade wind that whacks from the Sahara desert into the Gulf of Guinea.
The dispersed specks of dust by the wind are caught up on the vegetables and on trees standing in the open environment, while others are blown towards the South.
The arid atmosphere induced by the harmattan promotes haze generally by the aid of anthropogenic derivation of the particulate matter.
CHARACTERISTICS AND EFFECTS OF THE HARMATTAN PERIOD
Recall that the harmattan period begins directly with the dry season, so these to weather do occur concurrently. There are well-known attributes associated with this season.
In this area, you will learn some of the unique characteristics of harmattan.
There are so many characters exhibit by the harmattan.
If you have been to any west African countries during this period, particularly Nigeria, you will observe that there is usually cold weather in the morning which begins to debilitate as the daybreak.
While in the afternoon, there may be sunny weather or may not following the reduction of visibility due to poor humidity.
This circumstance typically affects the aviation industry as transportations are suspended when there is insufficient seeing.
In the evening time, the cold weather would set in again until the next day.
During this season, there is no rainfall as it prevents the formation of clouds and it disperses ready-made clouds ultimately.
The wind of harmattan favors extensive fire outbreaks as everywhere seems to be dry, thus several farmland and properties are being damaged severely.
Although hunters make the most useful resource of this season as harmattan uncovers the tick forest and wildlife are prone to the danger of being killed by the hunters.
On the other hand, the health of people who live in the region where the harmattan is common is not safe as there prevail miscellaneous issues occurring in this period.
To start with, during this period, there is an eruption of nose bleeding, caused by low humidity. The harmattan breeze can be assaulting to the nostril and it enhances irritation of asthma.
There is dehydration of the skin, that's the body quickly gets dry after washing and the lip gets crack if not hydrated frequently.
Source
The eyes can easily be infected by foreign objects if exposed to dust particles, thus the eyes are always protected.
Like I said before, this season is naturally known for dry, cold, and dusty wind, so proper care is shown to the sickler patients by providing them with a warm environment to reduce the risk of blood oxygen shortage which can be inflicted by the extreme cold temperature affluence by harmattan.
Fruits and vegetable hawkers advocate adequate preservative measures to avoid foodborne diseases since the harmattan wind disperse dust.
There's dehydration of streams and other water bodies via respiration.
In my community, we usually fetch water from a deep well
In conclusion, harmattan or the dry season in Nigeria creates several disadvantages but the case of malaria is reduced dramatically as there is no wet environment to breed mosquitoes because everywhere is dry.
According to Emmanuel Ekokotu,
The harmattan season comes just in time for the Christmas and new year festivities which means you can have as much fun as you want without having to drag an umbrella along looking like a magician trying to do an umbrella trick. This is the time to enjoy some chill after the heat from the previous season so do not hesitate to dress comfortable and stay protected
Thank you for reading till the end
See you soon
Reference
- Wikipedia
- Impact of harmattan season on human health in Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria
Note: All images are owned by the author (@jsalvage) except those with separate citations.)
I really hope the rain comes soon. Harmattan and dry season bite really hard
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Dear @jsalvage , Hamatan seems to be very hard on the Nigerians.
These are the current rivers in Korea.
https://pixabay.com/photos/winter-river-korean-river-landscape-4794767/
Wow, I love the river. Koreans can use that as a tourism center, right?
Posted using Dapplr
Yes, they did. By the way, it is used more for agricultural water, drinking water, household water, and industrial water.
Are there no rivers in Nigeria?