This study assessed rainfall, temperature and evapotranspiration variability in Katsina state using satellite based Rainfall (mm) and evapotranspiration (mm/months) downloaded from TAMSAT (Tropical Applications of Meteorology using Satellite data and ground-based observations) and temperature data was obtained from the Climate Research Unit (cru.uea.ac.uk) for a time period of 33 years (1983 – 2016). The data were analyzed for the occurrences of aridity, abrupt changes in evapotranspiration, temperature and rainfall values over Katsina State while the spatio-temporal pattern of the meteorological variables were also investigated. Results indicated that there have been statistically significant increases in rate of evapotranspiration and temperature while there appeared to be a reduction in the amount of rainfall in Katsina state. Analyses of the spatial distribution further suggest a sequence of steady decrease in rainfall from the southern Katsina state towards the Northern part of the state and alternate increase in evapotranspiration due to temperature rise. The Northern part of Katsina falls within the arid region (0.26) which covers a landmass of 6080.9 km2 (25%) while the Southern Katsina is in the semi-arid zone (0.49) and covers land area of 4191.682 km2 (17%). The result showed that aridity increased during the last decade (2000 – 2016) and it is encroaching towards the Southern part of Katsina.

Keywords : Aridity, Risk zone, Remote Sensing, TAMSAT.