History of the Origin and Development of Meteorological Services in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper attempts to give an insight to the origin and development of meteorological services in Nigeria. The study traced the origin of meteorological services in the world which started in 300 BCE by the Chinese weather prediction to 1835 when the modern weather forecasting was created by the British. The origin of meteorological services and its gradual development from manual to automated operations in Nigeria started in 1892 as an agricultural station under the then Public Works Department. It was about forty years later that a full-fledged Meteorological Department was established in the country. The Nigerian Meteorological Department started operations in 1937 and became the Nigerian Meteorological Agency a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Aviation in 2003. The information used in this study was from the archives and also from the interview conducted with some key officers of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET). This paper has found out that NIMET has gradually and steadily progressed from being a local to an international meteorological services organization through the consistent procurement of the latest meteorological equipment and partnering with relevant organizations to improve its meteorological services. The paper recommended the establishment of more meteorological stations for effective service delivery and the continuous training of its personnel.