The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), has appealed to pilots and airline operators to be cautious of thunderstorms and hazardous weather events as the rainy season commences in some parts of the country.
NiMet says, in areas where thunderstorms are expected, this can cause significant disruptions, stressing that thunderstorms can lead to turbulence, lightning strikes, strong winds, heavy rainfall, downdraught, microburst, and hailstones.
To this end, pilots and flight crew are expected to obtain departure, enroute and destination weather information from all NiMet offices across airports in the country.
In a statement, the Public Affairs General Manager, NiMet, Mr. Muntari Ibrahim says, they are also expected to make themselves available for briefing prior to flight operations for effective planning in their air navigation operations.
“All of these pose significant threats to safety of lives and property.The effects of thunderstorms are more hazardous to aviation industry, particularly the aircraft operations and passengers. Thunderstorms can also cause delays, diversion and cancellations of flights, as aircraft are often grounded in the face of severe weather”.
To mitigate the effects of thunderstorms, the agency assured pilots and airport users that it has installed weather monitoring systems, thunder detectors, satellite receiving ground-stations and Automatic Weather System across the airports and other stations nationwide.
“The rains which are currently prevalent in the Southern parts of Nigeria and occasionally around the Central States, are usually accompanied by severe thunderstorms which are bound to affect air navigation”.
