forecast/predict the weather to enhance policies implemented by the government concerning agriculture, water

resources, and other relevant industries in Lagos State (6.45°N, 3.39°E), Southwest Nigeria. There is a need to

ascertain the variability in cloud cover with other meteorological parameters in Lagos State which is fast-

growing with a total land mass of 1,171.28 square kilometers. Eleven years (2011-2021) ground data obtained

from Visual Crossing a leading provider of weather data were analyzed on a monthly and seasonal basis using

statistical tools. The results show that there is a significant rise in the extent of cloud cover in Lagos during July

to be very high with values that range between 242.53 mm, 227.25 mm, and 233.86 mm respectively, while

December and January is observed to record the lowest accumulation of rainfall with values that ranges

between 27.26 mm & 27.97 mm respectively. Finally, the comparison of the linear regression trend and the

estimated Pearson correlation coefficient reveals a substantial, positive relationship exists between cloud cover

and humidity, although cloud cover has a minor influence on rainfall. According to the study's findings, it is

advised that rainfall awareness programs be expanded and that government policies relating to agriculture,

water resources, and other relevant sectors take into account the rising nature of rainfall in recent years.

particles suspended in the atmospheres of planets or

other similar environments. The droplets and

crystals could be made of water or something else,

like ice. For clouds to form, air gets saturated at the

dew point or collects moisture above the ambient

vicious feedback loop that is already occurring, [4].

As a result, precipitation has increased in the world's

mid- and high-latitude regions, [5]. Specific

humidity in the atmosphere is frequently expressed

in terms of specific humidity units (SHU) and

relative humidity units (RH). The ratio of water

vapor in the atmosphere to air capacity at a given

temperature. RH has the potential to have a direct

visibility, [7].

area is one of the key variables for studying climatic

variability and further planning socio-economic

development strategies accordingly. The IPCC's

third assessment report shows that the global

hydrological cycle will become more intense as a

result of climate change, which will affect both

ground and surface water supply, [8]. To plan and

manage water resources, one must comprehend the

purposes.

Observations with powerful telescopes on the

ground and in space have shown that planets with a

lot of water or an atmosphere, like Venus, Mars,

Jupiter, and Saturn in our solar system or similar

systems in distant galaxies, form clouds around the

planet's surface when they are placed at an

appropriate distance from their star. There is a

differences in their structure, shape, symmetry, and

size. In addition to being puzzling and strange, these

findings defy all reasonable explanations, [1].

Sheldrake's work on regional variations in

morphogenetic fields may have contributed to these

discrepancies, [9]. Even though they are more like

blanket layers of gaseous masses than actual clouds,

dust particle nucleus is where the condensation

occurs. Each water molecule is tiny and floats in the

atmosphere. The droplets don't start falling as rain

until they combine to form a single drop with

enough mass to overcome the air's resistance. As a

result, clouds are viewed as crucial and reliable

weather forecasting tools.

Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air.

This is produced by the evaporation of water from

marshes, lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water.

Maximum water vapor concentration is determined

by the air temperature. Absolute humidity, mixing

ratio/humidity ratio, relative humidity, and specific

humidity are the four methods of expressing

humidity, [13], [14]. Absolute humidity refers to the

amount of water (MW) in a volume of air (Va).

variables. The Pearson correlation coefficient, or r,

measures how far all of these data points are off the

line of best fit that a Pearson product-moment

correlation attempts to build across the data of two

variables (i.e., how well the data points fit this new

model).

various circumstances, different coefficients are

utilized. The most often used is the Pearson product-

moment correlation coefficient, which is calculated

by dividing the variance of two parameters by the

sum of their standard deviations. The correlation

coefficient, given by equation 4, also known as "r",

has a range of -1 to +1. The "r" has the following

mathematical formula:

Y increasing with X, a value of 1 indicates that the

relationship is precisely and positively described by

a linear equation. When the value is -1, all the data

points are shown to be on a single line, but Y

increases as X decreases. If the value is 0, there is

no need for a linear model because there is no linear

relationship between the variables. To determine the

relationship between cloud cover and other

Rainfall in the study area exhibits double maxima

most of the time, with a peak period in June-July

and September-October as shown in Figure 2.

However, some of the years under consideration

period is commonly referred to as the "August

break," which is a result of a halt in the torrential

rain that visits mostly the southern region of the

country due to the tropical climate. The double

maxima phenomenon exhibited in the study area is a

characteristic of rainfall in southern Nigeria, [18].

This is also similar to the observation made by [18]

that the rainfall pattern below latitude 100 N is

bimodal, having a primary peak in June-July and

with the peak rainfall recorded to be 456.5 mm in

October 2019, while the minimum rainfall was

recorded to be 0 mm in different years under

consideration. As earlier observed by [18], the

increasing amount of rainfall in the coastal cities

may be partly responsible for the increase in flood

events devastating the lives and properties of people

based in the study area.

Fig. 2: Monthly variation of rainfall (2011-2021)

In Figure 4, it can be seen that there is an increase in

the amount of rainfall starting from the late dry wet

season up until the late wet season before it starts

decreasing towards the early dry season. However,

evident in the early dry season where the trend is

meant to curve downwards but instead keeps

increasing. This contrasting pattern led to

devastating flooding, claiming lives and properties,

[19]. The peak amount of rainfall was recorded to be

267.3 mm in the early dry season of 2019, while the

least amount of rainfall was recorded to be 10.23

mm in the late dry season of 2020. It is important to

note that rainfall in this study area is virtually

which are presented in Table 3 falls somewhere in

the middle of the small and medium positive

correlation coefficients presented in Table 2.

According to this correlation, the relationship

between cloud cover and rainfall is not an exact one.

There is, therefore, no disputing the link between an

increase in the proportion of cloud cover and an

increase in the quantity of precipitation that occurs.

Fig. 5: Correlation between cloud cover and

humidity (2011-2021)

Fig. 6: Correlation between cloud cover and rainfall

(2011-2021)

largely decided by the quality of information that is

readily available to them and the ease with which

they can acquire it. It is important for government

policies that affect agriculture, water resources

development, and other associated sectors to take

into account potential solutions to the problem of a

rise in the amount of rainfall that has occurred in

recent years according to this study. Additional

Ota, Nigeria.

[1] S. Warren, R. Eastman, and C. J. Hahn,

[2] S. Bony, B. Stevens, D. M. W. Frierson, C.

[4] S. M. Vicente-Serrano, R. Nieto, and L.

[6] J. Lepeule, A. A. Litonjua, A. Gasparrini, P.

[19] Akinwumi S. A., Omotosho T. V., Usikalu