Comparative Analysis on the Variability of Evapoteanspiration and Windspeed in Enugu State

This is a revised version of the initial manuscript submitted earlier. I had to take out the preliminary pages as recommended by Senior Editors.

Manuscript still contains information and data as in the initial manuscript submitted.

This study investigated the variability of evapotranspiration and wind speed in Enugu State. Daily maximum and minimum air temperature, maximum and minimum humidity, solar radiation and evapotranspiration for 20 years (1991 – 2010) was obtained from the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan (IITA). The Priestley and Taylor method was used to compute evapotranspiration in Enugu and the One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine if there is a significant difference between the mean monthly evapotranspiration. The results show that the lowest evapotranspiration (3.89mm/day) was obtained in rainy season (July) due to high humidity of the air and the presence of clouds, while highest evapotranspiration (4.36mm/day) was obtained in dry season due to the dryness of air. The One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that there is a significant difference between the mean evapotranspiration across the months. Among climatic factors affecting evapotranspiration, it was observed that wind speed displayed relatively small variations in it’s trend over the period of this study and is not in line with variations of evapotranspiration. It is herein recommended that other methods be used to analyze the variability in evapotranspiration in Enugu and compared with the method used in this study.