Thermodynamic Environment During the 2009 Burkina Faso and 2012 Nigeria Flood Disasters: Case Study

Abstract

AbstractCritical or extreme atmospheric conditions which could result in flood disasters are important output for numerical weather forecast. This research applied thermodynamic variables to investigate the environment of two flood scenarios in West Africa as captured by the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) satellite. Results from the two case studies of flood events, in (i) Burkina Faso and (ii) Nigeria savannah, investigated in this research work, indicated that the September 1st 2009 flood, which was as a result of a single volumetric rainfall event of 408,070.60 ((mm/h)*km2) with 65% convective region in Burkina Faso, was initiated by interactions between extremely large lower tropospheric wind shear and cold pool dynamics. The case of the Nigeria savannah floods between July and September, 2012, was triggered by both continuous rainfall and release of water from the lagdo dam in Cameroon, which affected most of the communities in the river Benue axis. The continuous rainfalls were found to be as a result of extremely high convergence of moisture in the river Benue axis at different locations and periods. One of such rainfall events, as captured by TRMM satellite during September 29, 2012 in the Nigeria rainforest zone, indicated that the volumetric rainfall is 351,310.9 ((mm/h)*km2) with only 34% convective portion. From these results, it can be deduced that a combination of thermodynamic environmental variables, volume rainfall, and other satellite-derived convective parameters could provide important information for flood forecasting.