By Ezra Ukanwa, Abuja

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMET, Thursday, alerted the general public, individuals with respiratory ailments, including airline operators on the possibility of decline in visibility as a result of observed dust haze propagated into the country from the source region.

The General Manager/Public Relations, Muntari Yusuf Ibrahim, made this disclosure in a statement obtained by our correspondent, in Abuja. 

Ibrahim said: “The weather reports from the country, indicating the approximate position of Inter-Tropical Discontinuity, ITD, winds at 10 meters and 800 meters (925hPa) above the ground surface indicate favourable conditions for further Dust-Haze propagations into the nation, which will worsen horizontal visibility.”

He further said that observation from the source region indicated that “Niger (Maine-Soroa, Goure, Maradi , N-guigmi, Diffa, 61091, Bila and Agadez) and Chad (Faya-Largeau and Ndjamena) have both reported Dust-Haze with poor horizontal visibility.”

NiMet said that in the next few hours, strong winds at 800m would spread more dust into the country thus, causing deterioration in horizontal visibility.

NiMet further revealed that in the next 24 hours, there are prospects of thick dust haze (in poor horizontal visibility, less than 1000m) over Katsina, Kano, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Borno, Adamawa, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Kaduna states; while Northcentral states are expected to report MODERATE DUST-HAZE (visibility of 2–5km).

NiMet, therefore, advised members of the public to take necessary precautions due to dust particles presently in suspension over the atmosphere, adding that the weather condition would persist for 72 hours.

Also, Individuals with respiratory ailments are advised to protect themselves as the current weather condition is not good for their health.

Airline operators are also advised to avail themselves of weather reports from NiMet for effective planning in their operations.

NiMet assured that its Central Forecast Office (CFO) would continue to monitor the weather and provide updates when necessary.