It is bordered by seven states, Kano and jigawa to the North, Taraba and Plateau to the South, Gombe and Yobe to the East, and Kaduna to the West. It occupies a total land area of 549,259.01sq. kilometers, representing about 5.3 percent of the landmass of Nigeria.
The State lies between Latitude of 9.3 and 12.3 North of the Equator and Longitude 8.5 and 11 East of the Greenwich Meridian.
The state spans two vegetation zones namely the Sudan Savannah and the Sahel Savannah. Rainfall in the state ranges between 1000mm and 1300mm per annum in the Sahel Savannah. Effective rain season starts from mid-May or sometime in early June and ends late October. The dry season starts in October and ends in May. This period is characterized by dryness and the presence of harmattan dust haze especially between December and March. The beginning and the end of the rainy season in the state are seldom abrupt. Instead, it is usually preceded by a succession of isolated showers of uncertain intensity with intervening dry periods of varying degress. Rainfall variability increases northwards. It is highest in May and decreases as the rainy season progresses. Relative humidity ranges from about 12 percent in February to about 68 percent in August. At the beginning of the rainy season, relative humidity is about 37 percent. |
