Nimet warns of thunderstorm in 24 states.

Severe turbulence and thunderstorms might affect about 24 states in Nigeria, The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (Nimet) gave this warning to residents and airline operators shuttling these States.

Some of the affected states include Kaduna, Gombe, Kebbi, Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi, and Borno.

Nimet also released a forecast at the weekend listing Plateau, Niger, Benue, Kwara, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the north-central part of the country as parts of the affected States.

“It should be predominantly cloudy over the inland and the coastal cities in the morning hours with chances of a few thunderstorms over Lagos, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom.

“Later in the day, thunderstorms are envisaged over parts of Oyo, Ondo, Edo, Ekiti, Abia, Enugu, Rivers, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom.”

This year rainy season would witness electrical charges in the atmosphere resulting in thunderstorms as announced by The Director-General of the NIMET Mansur Matazu

He further revealed that flight operations across the country would be affected by bad weather causing severe turbulence, especially at touchdown and certain flying levels.

He noted that precautionary measures have been put in place by the agency and issued to the air traffic controllers which must be adhered to by the pilots.


“Microbursts are mini-thunderstorms that emanate from the cloud because of the low temperature of the cloud.

“These microbursts which happen around the airports cause wind shear problems and that is why we have an alert system by which we issue alerts to pilots through the Air Traffic Controllers,” Matazu stated.

“Now, the negative implications of these weather issues include the fact that they cause severe turbulence during descent or at certain flying levels.

“You can also experience clear air turbulence and it happens during the onset period of the rainy season.”

Seasonal Climate Prediction is also known as Seasonal Rainfall Pattern (SRP) is produced by Nimet to keep Nigerians informed on the precipitations in the country.


This year’s SCP will see the nation experience a volume of rainfall from 3000mm in the South and 400 millimeters in the North.

Air crashes across the globe point to wind shear as one of its major enemy causing the death of 137 of 163 passengers aboard a Delta Airline in an accident that occurred on August 2, 1985.