Climate and bioclimate analysis of Ondo State, Nigeria

Most of the previous analyses of climate of Nigeria, particularly OndoState have been for agricultural use. They have little or no application for biometeorological purposes. This paper examines and analyse the climate of Ondo State, Nigeria with respect to biometeorological parameters based on air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation and rainfall from 1998 to 2008. It assesses the previous methods of climatic analysis with respect to biometeorology. It then use complete heat budget model approach and RayMan model as analytical tool to calculate physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) in order to define thermo-physiological thresholds and classify biometeorological parameters in Ondo State. Detailed analysis of thermal comfort patterns indicate that there are marked spatial and seasonal variations in thermal comfort over the study area. The result shows three different grade of physiological stress over the two zones of Ondo State, that is the humid forest zone and derived savannah zone. The study recommends incorporation of atmospheric environmental parameters into health management systems of the country in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in health sector.