Hazy Weather: Flight operations to normalise tomorrow – NiMet

Following the recent cases of flight delays and cancellation, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMet, said the hazy weather will lessen and flight operations will normalise from April 1, 2021.

In a statement by NiMet’s general manager, public relations, Muntari Yusuf Ibrahim, the agency said: “The present dust haze being experienced across the north and central regions of the country resurfaced on Thursday March 25, 2021 as anticipated by the Central Forecast Office, CFO, of the agency in its weather outlook issued on Monday 22nd of March, 2021.

“The dust event is as a result of the passage of the midlatitude wave which helped in strengthening the surface pressure over the Sahara Desert region.”

NiMet further said “this activity resulted in the strengthening and intensification of the Saharan high pressure cell, which progressively pushed down the Inter-Tropical Discontinuity ,ITD, from a latitudinal position of 10.8 degrees north on Wednesday 24th to 7.8 degrees north on Tuesday March 30, 2021.

” The dust situation is expected to persist till April 1, 2021when the Saharan high pressure belt is projected to weaken and horizontal visibilities should improve to between 1-3 kilometers over the extreme north.

“Following this, the region is then expected to experience sunny and slightly hazy conditions over the northern cities, while cloudiness to the south and parts of the central region.

” The implication of this is that Nigerians should expect flight operations to run smoothly without fear of delay or cancellation from April 1, 2021 over the extreme north.”