Abstract

The study length of Rainfall RF season in Enugu South East Nigeria from 1916 2012 examines the trend in RF pattern over Enugu Data for this work were extracted from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency NIMET Oshodi Lagos archive for analysis The results show that the date of Onset of RF over the years has extended or delayed slightly from 12th March 71 day of the year in 1916 to about 15 in 2012 In analysing RF cessation it was observed that RF cessation has reduced or shifted forward from 21st October to 10th October The study further observed that the duration of RF over Enugu has reduced The duration in 1916 was 256 days in 2012 duration accounted for just 223 rainy days during the period representing a decrease of about 30 days as shown by the trend line for RF duration It was also discovered that the RF distribution of Enugu skewed positively an indication that total RF is reducing slowly The RF season or duration over Enugu covers 7 months This work discovered that onset of RF has extended while cessation date reduced and duration of RF has also reduced pointing to high RF intensity this can trigger flooding and soil erosion therefore the work suggests that every environmental related policies need to consult RF data and take account the benefits and demerits associated with it