Evaluation of Evapotranspiration in Makurdi Using Priestley and Taylor’s Method

ABSTRACT

Evapotranspiration plays a critical role, a link of the energy, carbon and water cycles with latent heat of vaporization serving as the largest sink of heat in the atmosphere. This research work evaluates the seasonal and annual variations of evapotranspiration with climatic parameters for twenty years data in Makurdi from 1990-2010, the data used were obtained from International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and used in the analysis of evaluating evapotranspiration in Makurdi. The Priestley and Taylor’s method was used in estimating evapotranspiration. The results show that solar radiation and net radiation has a greater influence on evapotranspiration in dry season than in rainy season, it also shows that the month of April experienced the maximum magnitude of evapotranspiration, while the minimum in the month of September. Hence, low evapotranspiration were obtained in rainy season, while high evapotranspiration were obtained in dry season.