Why cold has returned to Jos city – Expert

Three weeks after the usual hazy cold weather disappeared in Jos, the capital of Plateau State and its environs, the atmospheric temperature has once again dropped, making every nook and cranny of the city cold.

Daily Trust reported how Jos was cold late last year but the temperature went up and the weather became stable.

However, our correspondent reports that three weeks into the average temperature, the cold has resurfaced, forcing residents to wear jackets, sweaters and other warm dresses to protect themselves against the cold.

Onoja Desmond Sunday, Head, Hydrology and Climate (Water Resources) unit at the National Centre for Remote Sensing, Jos, on Sunday, explained why there is a sudden drop in the temperature.

Mr Sunday said, “Weather is much more global than one can imagine. The global air mass temperature from the North flows due to the strong high pressure over the Pacific, resulting in cold air which can easily spread and travel millions of kilometres.

“This suggests a pattern of change of the cold dry tropical North Eastern trade wind (harmattan) that travels across Jos. As the wind travels across the Plateau, a short-term variability is created as the ascended cold air becomes cooler due to lapse rate (temperature in the atmosphere drops with altitude).

He further said the altitude of Jos affected the air mass on arrival thereby creating temporary micro weather as being witnessed now, as the temperature dropped as low as between six to seven degrees celsius at night as a result of heat from the sun, adding that whenever the direction of this gave way, the weather in Jos would be reversed.