INTRODUCTORY AGROCLIMATOLOGY

Agroclimatology is the science which deals with the physical

characteristics of the environment of growing plants and animals. It is
concerned with the study of physical process which takes place in the
environment and exploring these characteristics and processes in the interest
of agriculture.
Crop growth and production depend on the interaction of biological
system; which is the plant or more often the population of plants and the
physical environment in which they grow. The growth and production are in
fact derived from the environment through special mechanisms and
properties possessed by the biological system. However, the importance of
physical environment in Agricultural science cannot be over emphasized.
The knowledge of the environment is useful in the efforts
-to increase food production.
-to obtain full value of any experimental study, observation of the climate
factors and other aspects of the physical environment must be made.
- the detail roles of the crop which affect the reaction of the environment
must be observed.
Therefore, Agricultural meteorology directly assumes that an organism
(plant and animal) and its environment form a whole.
agroclimatology
Agroclimatology studies the following:
- The solar energy
- the composition and intensity of solar radiation, methods of
measuring solar energy received by crops in the field and direct
technical utilization of the solar energy.

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 - the atmosphere i.e the layers in which aerial parts of plants
growth and develop.
- the thermal regime of the layers and their relation to the surface of
the soils.
- the vertical and horizontal movements of air of the atmosphere as
well as their moisture regime and formation of various
hydrosphere.
- studying the layer of air near the soil (1st two meters).
- finding methods for influencing the climate and the physical state
of these layers in order to combat frosts, drought, dry winds and
other unfavorable conditions. It is believed that if we can change
the physical state of the air near the soil surface, we can improve
the climate at given locality and create favourable conditions for
the plants.
- finding also how environment is affected by such agronomic
practices that include mulching, ploughing, heating and irrigation.
- another important task of agricultural meteorology is to study soil
aeration, as well as the thermal and moisture balance of the
surface layer of the soil in relation to soil composition, relief,
local soil climate, latitude and others.
Agrometeorology from all the above deals mainly with physical
problems. It could be said to be the science of physics of the environment in
which plants and animal organisms interact as they grow and develop.
Agricultural meteorology is not concerned with chemical properties or
with the chemical reactions taking place in the environment. It also does not
concern with the study of the whole atmosphere whose main task is weather
forecast.

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 Agroclimatology can be divided into plant meteorology which includes
forest meteorology and zoo meteorology.

Elements and control of climate and weather

Weather can be defined as the condition of the atmosphere at a
particular place and at a particular time.
Climate is the average condition of the weather experienced at a particular
place. The average is arrived at after 30-35 years of weather observation.
Weather can also be defined as the short term state of the atmosphere at a
specific time and place, including the temperature, humidity, cloud cover,
precipitation, wind etc.
The earth’s climate is generally defined as the average weather over a
long period of time. A place or regions climate is determined by both natural
and anthropogenic (human made) factors. The natural elements include the
atmosphere, geosphere and biosphere, while the human factors can include
land and resources uses. Changes in any of these factors can cause local,
regional, or even global changes in the climate.
Climate variability
An area’s climate is always changing, the changes do not usually
occur on a time scale that is immediately obvious to us. While we know how
the weather changes from day to day, subtle climate changes are not as
readily detectable. Weather patterns and climate types takes similar elements
into account, the most important of which are:
 The temperature of the air
 The humidity of the air
 The type and amount of cloudiness
 The type and amount of precipitation

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  Air pressure
 Wind speed and direction.
Although weather and climate are different, they are very much inter related.
A change in one weather element often produces changes in the others and
in the region’s climate
Climate of a place can be confidently described only when long time
observation and recording is being carried out. The climate of the southern
part of West Africa is generally described as hot, wet while the northern is
hot and dry.
While weather of a place is a day to day or hour to hour phenomenon.
For example will be right to say the weather is sunny, rainy or hot. In other
words, weather of a place changes within a short period of time while
climate of a particular place is more unique.
Some useful terminologies in the study of agroclimatology include:-
Pressure
Pressure is the weight of air exerted on the earth’s surface at a
particular place, it is measured by barometer. The pressure maps are
constructed on the same principles as temperature maps. Stations are
located, the mean pressure values for them are plotted and line of equal
barometric pressure is known as Isobars.
Isotherm: this is a line joining places of equal or the same temperature etc
Isohyets: this is a line joining place of equal rainfall
Isohaline: this is a line joining places of equal salinity

Humidity
Humidity is the amount of water vapor present in air. There are two
types of humidity absolute and relative humidity.

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 Absolute is the actual quantity of water vapor present in a given
volume of air expressed in grammes cubic meter. While relative humidity is
the ratio or proportion of the actual amount of water vapour present and the
actual amount of the air it could hold at a given temperature. When the air
can no longer hold more water, the air is said to be saturated and the relative
humidity is100%. Therefore saturation point or dew point is reached when
air is holding the maximum water vapour it can contain.

Importance of climate and weather

It is a well known fact that agricultural activities depend largely on the
prevailing climatic conditions, even a peasant farmer in a rural area knows
without been told that climate dictates his farming activities. That is more
reason why as in agriculturist, the knowledge of climate is inevitable to
equip one with challenges one is likely to face in the curse of practicing
agriculture.
The influence of climate and weather over man’s activity can be seen
from his every day life. Forces of nature have regulated to every great extent
the sort of food we eat, what we wear, how we leave, work. our mental
alertness, our physical characteristics and even our racial differences when
closely examined have some relationship with climate. The safety of air
communications is closely tied to accurate meteorological reports. Farmers
and their crops are dependent of weather and climate. The condition of
weather may encourage or discourage the growth of fungus and diseases
which maybe injurious to both men and crops. Climatic conditions also
influence how healthy one lives.

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Origin of weather and climate
Revolution of the earth: this is the movement of earth in its orbit around the
sun and is the second major property that creates unique condition for
weather. The first being the rotation of earth on its axis. One complete
revolution occurs every 3651/4 days. The earth moves anti-clockwise around
the sun if viewed from above while the earth’s orbit is elliptical. The earth’s
nearest approach to the sun occurs January 3 known as perihelion and the
farthest distance from the sun occurs around July 4, known as aphelion.
Tilt of the earth: this is the third property that contributes to weather. The
earth’s axis is not oriented 900 perpendicular to the sun. Instead, the earth’s
axis is tilted 231/2 away from the true vertical with respect to the earth axis.
This tilt causes the earth axis to always be pointed to Polaris, the North Star.
Because this tilt is stationary, it causes the northern hemisphere to be tilted
toward the sun in some part of the year. It is this condition that causes the
season. The net effect of the earth’s tilt is to create different climate
conditions latitudinal that also vary throughout the year.

Type of climate
The climate of any fairly large part of the biosphere is determined by
the operation of environmental factors usually referred to as climatic factors
(temperature, rainfall, wind, pressure and humidity).
There are three main general types of climates, the polar, temperate
and equatorial or topical. Temperate climates are characteristics by marked
fluctuations in the values of temperature and rainfall. In the temperate
regions we have four reasons: the autumn, winter, spring and summer.
Tropical climates have rainfall as the main factor which determines
the seasonality of the region like the rainy season and dry season.

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Temperature is more even in the environment. The regions have high and
steady temperature throughout the year.
Within each of these three main general types, there are varying
numbers of subdivision. The single most important factors determining
climate is latitude. Therefore, towards the equator, a mean temperature of
18oC is the boundary between equatorial and temperate zone. While pole
ward an isotherm of 10oC defines the boundary between polar and temperate
regions.
There is a difference between climatic types and climatic zones. A
climatic zone is a large region surrounding the earth in which the climate is
uniform, while climatic type is one which may be found in different
unconnected regions but may have the same climate.
Some of the types of climatic subdivisions are:-
Tropical rainy climates
1. tropical rain forest
2. tropical monsoon
3. tropical savannah
Dry climates
1. desert climate
2. steppe climate which may be hot, cool and cold
Warm temperate rainy climates
1. summer dry
2. winter dry etc
Cool snowforest climate
1. hot summers
2. warm summers
3. cool summers

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 4. very cool summers

Polar climates
1. tundra climate
2. forest climate
3. polar climate due to high altitudes

Geographical Belts
Latitudinal differences, the net effect of earth tilt, provide a means for
dividing the earth into broad geographic belts:
Equatorial: between 100N-100S with days and nights roughly equal length,
high intensity insulation throughout the year.
Tropical: between 10–250N-S. Seasons are now expressed but still
have large total annual insulation.
Subtropical: 25-350N-S. Total annual insulation now decreases and is
therefore regarded as transition zone.
Midlatitude: 35-550N-S. Sun angle changes markedly throughout the year,
differences in summer/winter/day length are great. Experience a wide range
of annual temperature.
Subartic/subantartic: 55-600N-S. day/nights can be very long.
Artic/Antartic: 60-750N-S. Extremely large variation in day/night length
because they lie astride the artic and antartic circles.

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Polar: 75-900N-S. Greatest seasonal contrasts of insulation anywhere on
earth, dominated by six month days and nights.

Dynamics of the atmosphere

All areas north of the equator have larger parts of their circumference toward
the sun than at equinox and hence have longer days than nights. Longer days
plus more nearly vertical rays of the sun results in a maximum receipt of
solar energy in the northern hemisphere at this time which brings about high
temperature during the summer. 22nd of June is known as summer solstice. In
the southern hemisphere, all these conditions are reversed; nights are longer
than days, the rays are relatively oblique, solar radiations are at minimum
and winter conditions prevail. The sun seems to stand still for about five
days at the time of summer solstice (at this time, almost no change in the
time of sun set and sunrise) before moving southward, the same happens at
the winter solstice.
On about 22nd of December when the earth is in the opposite position
in its orbit, it is the South Pole that is inclined 23½ o towards the sun. The
sun’s rays are then vertical over the tropic of capricom (23½ oN) and the
tangent rays pass 23½o over the southern pole to the other side of the
Antarctic circle. Consequently, there is light continuously south of 66½S.
This time is summer south of the equator but winter in the northern
hemisphere (winter solstice), where opposite conditions prevail.
The structure of the atmosphere
The atmosphere can be described as a thin layer of odourless,
colourless and tasteless gases held to the earth by force of gravity.
Atmosphere comprises of a suitable mechanical mixture of gases, the most

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important of which are nitrogen 78%, oxygen 21%, argon 0.93%, carbon
dioxide 0.03%, ozone and water vapour.
Oxygen, nitrogen and argon are almost constants but CO 2, O3 and
water vapour varies in amount both partially and temporally. E,g water
vapour is 0% in arid and 3-4% in the humid tropics. About 10-12km above
the earth, there is no existence of water vapour. Because the water in the
atmosphere is supplied by evapotranspiration of water from the earth’s
surface and carried by turbulence which is most effective below a height of
10km. Ozone is between 15-35km.
Evidence has shown that the atmosphere is structured into three (3)
relatively warm layers separated by two relatively cold layers. The three
warm layers occur near the earth’s surface, between 50 and 60km and above
120km while the cold layers are found between 10 and 30km and about
80km above the earth’s surface.
The lowest layer of the atmosphere is called troposphere which
contains about 75% of the total gaseous mass of the atmosphere and
virtually all the water vapour and aerosol. It is the place where weather
activities take place most and most important to man. Within the troposphere
temperature decreases with height at an average rate of 6.5oC per kilometer.
Tropopause is the top of the troposphere. The highest of the
tropopause is not constant. It varies from place to place and from time to
time over a given area. The altitude of the tropopause is, however, highest at
the equator (16km) where there is intense heating and vertical convective
turbulence and least at the poles where it is only 8km.
Stratosphere
This is the second major layer of the atmosphere and extends from the
troposphere to about 50km above the ground. Here, unlike the troposphere

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temperature increases with height in the stratosphere. The stratosphere
contains much of the total atmospheric ozone. Maximum ozone
concentration occurs around 22km above the earth’s surface. The
stratosphere contains little or no water vapour. The top of the stratosphere is
marked by an isothermal zone called stratopause. The troposphere and
stratosphere constitute the lower atmosphere.
The upper layer of the atmosphere include:
The mesosphere
The thermosphere (ionosphere)

The exosphere from 500km and750km above. The atoms of oxygen, helium
and hydrogen form a very tenuous atmosphere and gas laws cease to be
valid.
Conclusively, the earth’s atmosphere varies in characteristics from the
base upward. As far as weather and climate are concerned, only the

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troposphere and stratosphere, particularly troposphere are of interest. The
upper atmosphere is yet unexplored compared to the lower atmosphere.

Condensation and precipitation

Condensation is the process by which water vapour is transformed
into liquid water. Condensation occurs under varying conditions associated
with changes in one or more of air volume, temperature, pressure, or
humidity. The water in the surrounding environment is being heated by sun
and forced to rise as a vapour into the air known as evaporation. This vapour
in the air turned into wet and humid air by cooling and this process is called
condensation.
Dry air normally cools by 1oC for every 100m rise in the atmosphere,
as the air continues to rise, it will eventually reach a temperature low enough
for the water vapour in the air to condense into clouds. This temperature is
known as the dew point or condensation level.
The height at which condensation occurs is determined by how wet,
warm or humid the air is. Low clouds indicate that the air is either very
humid or very cool. Condensation may come-about in several ways
including:
 radiation from the earth’s surface during a clear night,
 the horizontal movement of warm air over cold surface
 the mixing along the margins of two air currents having markedly
different temperatures,
 the movement of air from warmer to colder latitudes and most
importantly by ascent.
Each type of the cooling may lead to different degrees of condensation and
varying results. Condensation may not occur even though the relative

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humidity is in excess of 100%, therefore it needs a suitable surface on which
the moisture can condense which is known as condensation nuclei. The
condensation nuclei may include dust particles, smoke, salt from the ocean,
pollen grains and negative ions which have the property of wettability.
The condensed droplets themselves measure only about 0.05mm in
diameter when formed. They are minute that they can float in the air as fog
or clouds. Larger drops fall on leaves and grasses as dew.
In the atmosphere, condensation usually takes place when the air is
cooled beyond its dew-point, therefore, the capacity of the air to hold
moisture in vapour form decreases with decrease in its temperature. Cooling
of the air is the normal method of achieving saturation and hence,
condensation. Such cooling may be brought about by any of the following
ways.
1. loss of heat by conduction to a cold surface a process known as
contact cooling
2. mixing with colder air
3. adiabatic cooling due to ascent air
Adiabatic temperature change
When a parcel of air is vertically displaced for whatever reason,
certain changes occur in the air. Because the air parcel encounters lower
pressure and there is generally no exchange of heat with the surrounding air,
the volume of the vertically displaced air parcel increases flowing
expansion. This process involves work and consumption of energy. So the
heat available per unit volume of air decreases and there is a fall in
temperature. Since such a temperature change does not involve energy gain
from or loss to the environment, it is said to be adiabatic.

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 The rate at which temperature decreases in a rising and expanding air
parcel is known as adiabatic lapse rate averaging to 9.8oC per kilometer.

Precipitation
Precipitation is refer to as all forms of liquid and solid (frozen) matter
derived from the atmosphere; it could be rain, snow, dew, frost, fog-drip etc.
The droplets formed as a result of condensation is so small in diameter
(0.05mm) that they float in the air as clouds or fog. When they coalesce in
the air to a certain size (1-2mm) they may fall to the earth as one or more
forms of precipitation i.e rain, snow, sleet, hail or hailstorm. However, only
rain and snow make significant contribution to precipitation totals and in the
tropics, the term rainfall is interchangeable with precipitation since snow is
generally absent.
Raindrop formation is a complex process and it is not known for sure
how droplets actual coalesce. Many theories however favoured electrical
attraction, supper cooling followed by freezing into ice crystals which form
condensation nuclei and turbulence causing coalesce by collision.

Types of precipitation
Depending on the mode of uplift of air, precipitation is divided into
three main types; convective, cyclonic and orographic/relief.

Conventional precipitation
Conventional precipitation results from two basic types of
mechanism, spontaneous rise of moisture air and forced rise of moist air.
Convection makes the moisture air to rise. As it is cooled adiabatically
and eventually to below the dew point, condensation starts and the rising air

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column forms a cloud. Sometimes convection continues to develop and the
clouds grow to a dense mass yielding heavy rain.
Cyclonic precipitation
It is caused by large scale vertical motion of air associated with low
pressure systems like the depressions. Precipitation is moderately heavy,
continuous, and affects very extensive areas. Cyclonic precipitation is not as
intense as convective type of precipitation but it has longer duration.
Sometimes cyclonic precipitation lasts for 6-12 hrs.
Orographic/relief rainfall
This is by forced ascent of large air masses which take place under
two different sets of conditions.
1. when prevailing winds encounter a mountain barrier, the air layer
as a whole is forced to rise in order to overcome the barrier
2. a layer of cold air may act in the same way as mountain barrier.
Therefore, precipitation brought about by the forced ascent of moist air
over a mountain barrier is called orographic/relief precipitation.

Radiation

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 The sun provides 99.97% of energy used by various purposes in the
earth atmosphere system. Every minute the sun radiates about 56 x 10 26
calories of energy of which the earth intercepts only 2.55 x1018 calories.
The sun is luminous gaseous sphere, has a surface temperature of
6000oC and emits energy in electromagnetic waves which travel at the rate
of about 299.300km per second. The energy which travels radically
outwards from the sun takes only 9 1/3 minutes to travel about 150 million
km, the distance between the earth and sun. Although solar radiation travels
through space without energy loss, the intensity of radiation decreases
inversely as the square of the distances from the sun. However, about 99%
of the solar radiation is in the short wave from 0.15 to 4.0µm.
The amount of solar radiation incident on the top of earth’s
atmosphere depends on three factors namely
The time of the year
Time of the day and
Latitude
The total mount of radiation received at a given location is also
affected by length of the day.
The above factors produced the pattern of receipt of solar energy at
the top of the atmosphere. The equator has two insulation maxima at the
equinoxes and two minima at the solstices. The Polar Regions receive their
maximum insulation amounts during their summer solstices when the day is
continuous.
The amount of energy received by the earth assuming that there is no
interference from the atmosphere is affected by four factors:-
1. solar output
2. the sun-earth distance

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 3. latitude of the sun
4. day length
Surface receipt of solar energy and its effects
The pattern of isolation distribution could be modified for the earth’s
surface primarily because of the effect of the
Atmosphere
Energy transfer within the earth-atmosphere system
Latitude
Cloud cover
Land and sea
Elevation an aspect
The atmosphere absorbs, reflects, scatters and re-radiates solar energy.
About 18% of the isolation is absorbed directly by ozone and water vapour.
Ozone absorbs all ultraviolet radiation below 0.29µm. Water vapour
absorption of radiation is greatest between 0.9µm and 2.1µm. Carbon
dioxide absorbs radiation with wave length greater than 4µm.
The cloud cover
The cloud cover impedes the penetration of insulation. On average,
about 25% of incoming solar radiation is reflected back to space by clouds.
The proportion of incident radiation that is reflected is termed ALBEDO.
Radiation is also reflected by the earth’s surface.
Vertical light rays generally give lower albedo than slanting or
inclined rays. Hence, the albedo of a given surface is high near the sunrise
and sunset and low around the noon.
The effect of the cloud cover also operates in reverse, since it serves
to retain much heat that would otherwise be lost from the earth by radiation

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throughout the day and night. Cloud cover lessens the daily temperature
range by preventing high maxima by day and low minima by night.
Land and water (Sea)
Land and water have different thermal properties and therefore react
differently to solar radiation. Water hearts up at a lower rate than land but it
loses its heat less readily. Whereas water has tendency to store the heat it
receives, the land, on the other hand, quickly returns it to the atmosphere.
These differences in the thermal properties of land and water surfaces help
produce what is called the continentality effect. The land and water surfaces
behave differently to insulation (solar radiation) because:-
The albedo of the land surface is greater than that of water, water
surface is transparent so that the rays of the sun can penetrate deeper than
relatively opaque land; heat transfer in water is through conventional that
are more efficient than the slow conduction in land.
Elevation and aspect:
Elevation and aspect do exercise some control over isolation
distribution on the earth’s surface. Insulation values at high elevation under
clear skies are generally higher than those in locations near seas level in the
same environment. This is because the smaller mass of air above locations at
high latitude ensures less interference with insulation by the atmosphere.
Aspect is the direction faced by a given slope. Some slopes are more
exposed to sun than the others.
The highest amounts of insulations are received in the sub tropical zones
which have slightly higher values than the cloudier equatorial ozone.
Insulation values decrease pole-ward reaching their minima around latitude
70 - 80o north and latitude 60 -70o southern of equator.

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 Atmospheric and terrestrial radiation are some common ones
experienced on the earth and atmosphere.
Terrestrial radiation
1. Atmospheric radiation
2. Radiation balance
Scattering occurs if the direction of a photon of radiation is charged
by interaction with atmospheric gases and aerosols. Two types of scattering
are distinguished. For gas molecules smaller than the radiation wavelength
(), ray light scattering occur in all direction and is proportional to (1/4). As
a result, the scattering of blue light (-0.4µm) is in order of magnitude
greater than that of red light (-0.7µm), thus creating the day time blue sky.
However, when water droplets, aerosol, particles, with similar sizes
(0.1-1.5µm radius) to the radiation wavelength are present, most of the light
is scattered forward. This scattering gives the grayish appearance of polluted
atmosphere.
Solar radiation input is the major energy source for the earth’s
biosphere, and the direct driving force for atmospheric and oceanic
circulations. Solar radiation is of vital importance in agriculture since it is
this energy that powers the agricultural system like any ecosystem. Solar
radiation determines the thermal characteristics of the environment, namely
the air, and the soil temperatures, sunshine and day length or photoperiod.
Photosynthesis, the basic process of food manufacture in nature, and
photoperiodism, the flowering response to light, are both controlled by solar
radiation.

Plant response to radiation

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 For its effects on plant, solar radiation can be considered under 8
separate sections (wavebands).
1. >1.0µm – no effect
2. 1.0-0.72 µm – causes elongation, photoperiodic response
3. 0.72 – 0.6µm – chlorophyll absorption and photoperiodic
responses
4. 0.61-0.51 µm – no significant response
5. 0.51-0.40 µm – strong chlorophyll absorption, photoperiodic
response
6. 0.40-0.31 µm – shortens the plant and thicken the leaves
7. 0.31-0.28 µm – detrimental effect
8. <0.28 µm – radiation can kill plants – (ultraviolet)

Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is the process of production of carbohydrate from
water and C02 under the effect of solar radiation. The radiation is of prime
importance for this process which is in two bands; around 0.45 µm and 0.65
µm. photosynthesis uses up about 1-2% of the solar energy. The
photosynthetic rates of most leaves increase with the intensity of light falling
on them up to a certain point called light saturation point after which the
photosynthetic rate is independent of light intensity.
Light compensation point is the irradiance level at which the photosynthetic
rate equals respiration rate.
Radiation and leaf absorption
Radiation cannot penetrate deeply into dense horizontal leaf stands of
vegetation. It has been suggested that the ideal arrangement is where the
upper leaves are vertical and allow penetration of radiation to the lower

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horizontal leaves. Desert plant reflects more radiation at all wave lengths
than mesophites or medium moisture loving types. This enables them retain
lower temperature under extreme radiation condition than would otherwise
be the case.
Photoperiodic
Photoproodism is the response of plants to the 24 hours light pattern
cycle. According to this response, plants are often subdivided into three
types:
1. long day (short night) – these plants flower when the daylight is
greater than 13 hrs e.g barley, wheat (winter) and spinach.
2. day neutral (photo insensitive) – photo sensitive plants will flower
at any length of day light e.g carrot, tomato, cotton, rice and
summer wheat.
3. short day (long night) – these plants flower when daylight is less
than 13hrs e.g sweet potato, some soybeans, maize, sorghum, sugar
-cane, tobacco and some rice verities.
Phototropism
This is the growth of plants towards the direction of light. The active
spectral range is between 0.43 to 0.48 µm. The stems of most plants have
positive phototropism, that is why they grow towards light, but may also
exhibit transverse phototropism by growing perpendicular to the light
direction. The sun-flower turning to the rising sun is a common example of
phototropism. Negative phototropism is in opposite direction to light.
Response of plants to wind
As usual, wind increase evaporation from the soil and sometimes
increase transpiration from crops. When wind that has passed over hot dry
areas reaches a cropped land, a reduction in growth and yield of crops may

21
result due to increased water loss from the plants and the resulting moisture
stress. However, the extent of this effect is determined by the temperature
and humidity of the air, the height and roughness of the crop and the
persistence/amount of the wind. The effect being particularly noticeable with
irrigated crops in arid regions. Moderate to strongly hot dry winds bellowing
persistently from desert areas at certain seasons may have desiccating effects
over considerable area, as is the case with the Hammattan blowing from the
Sahara into some parts of Nigeria.
The main effects of wind that are significant to tropical agriculture are
wind erosion which mechanical damage the crops resulting in loss of growth
and yield. Winds are strong enough to uproot trees, break branches, blow off
flowers and young fruits which occur regularly at certain season. Significant
losses also result from less spectacular wind damage to the foliage of other
crops. For example, it has been shown that photosynthesis and translocation
are markedly reduced in wind damage laves with breakage of the mid rib
alone accounting for 30 percent or more reduction in both processes.

Equipment and maintenance of a standard meteorological state

Because of the dominant effect of weather on crops and yields, a
careful recording of weather data is of vital importance. At many sites
throughout the country, simple climatic data such as rainfall and temperature
are recorded. The following note briefly indicates the recommended
instruments and practices at a standard meteorological station.
Location
Meteorological stations should be sited on level or slightly sloping
land, away from trees, buildings or other obstructions. Ideally, they should

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be fenced with gates. Grasses should be kept low and neither enclosure nor
the surrounding should be artificially watered.
Records
Meteorological data must be properly labeled to include;-
1. Data of observation
2. Time of observation
There are two main types of meteorological observation
1. Instrumental
2. Non instrumental observation
Instrument: Air temperature, soil temperature, sunshine (radiation) wind
direction, wind speed, evapotranspiration, rainfall, relative humidity etc.
Temperature; Thermometer are used to record temperature, for the soil
temperature thermometers are installed at varying depth in the soil because
of the variability of temperature with depth. For the ambient temperature, the
thermometers are placed within the meteorological station for reading; we
have minimum and maximum thermometers. Dry and wet bulbs which are
placed in Stevenson screen. Radiometers are used to take solar radiation.
Campbell stokes: Is mainly use in the recording of sunshine.
Gunn bellani integrator: Is another instrument used in measuring radiation.
Wind vane: Is used in measuring or knowing the direction of the wind. The
normal wind direction is north-east. One of the relevance of wind direction
is to show season. North-east signifies dry season while, N-west signifies
rain season.
Wind speed: Anemometers are used to collect wind speed. There are two
types; hand anemometer and installed anemometer. The hand anemometer
gives instantaneous reading while the installed one collects and store

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readings over a long period of time; the readings are in unit distance per
time, usually in m/s.
Piche evaporimeter: Evapo-transpiration tanks are used in measuring the
rate of evaporation from the surfaces of the bodies.
Floating evaporation: Measures evaporation from a surface of water. It has
small container fastened to a wooden frame floating freely on the surface of
its water. By periodically measuring the level of water in the evaporator, one
can determine the amount of water evaporated.
Relative humidity: Hygrometers are used to take the readings if relative
humidity. One of the importance of relative humidity is influencing
pollination in plants, evapoutranspiraiton, condensation and in fact rainfall.
Rain gauge: Are used to measure rainfall. There are two types; the
conventional and tipping bucket. By using conventional, you may take
readings of total amount of water while tipping by bucket allows you to take
instant readings and long term readings. It also allows you to take rainfall
intensity. The conventional and rainfall gauge and tipping guard measure
both rainfall intensity and rainfall amount.
Non-instrument observation
Clouds (type and amount)
Visibility

Conditions and maintenance of standard meteorological station

 meteorological stations should be fenced and fitted with gate(s)
 the surrounding area must be free from trees, shrubs and grasses to
avoid interference with the readings.
 the instruments must be properly maintained, maintenance which
includes cleaning of the Campbell stoke with soft and damp cloth.

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 Oiling of wind vane and anemometer, keeping the electrical cords in
proper conditions. Where there is Stevenson screen, the screen should
be washed with soap and water dry afterward, painting should be
made at least once in three years.
 the enclosure and surrounding should not be artificially watered at any
time.
 were the condition allows, security personal should be provided to
safe-guard the instruments from stolen and destruction.
 Meteorological stations should be sited in an area that is a
representative of the locality.

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