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By Fortune Eromosele
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NiMet has assured Nigerians of smooth flight operations beginning from Thursday, April 1.
The assurance came as a result of the hazy weather conditions in the north and central parts of the country, which have delayed and cancelled many flights.
Explaining reasons for the dust haze, the Central Forecast Office, CFO, of the Agency in a release, said that: “The present dust haze being experienced across the north and central regions of the country resurfaced on Thursday 25 of March 2021 as anticipated by the CFO in its weather outlook issued on Monday 22 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.
“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 24 to 7.8 degrees north on Tuesday 30 of March 2021.
“The dust situation is expected to persist till Thursday 1 of April when the Saharan high-pressure belt is projected to weaken and horizontal visibilities should improve to between 1-3 kilometres 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 Thursday 1 April 2021 over the extreme north.”
NiMet assured the general public and travellers of continuous update of the weather condition as it unfolds.
