Trends in the present-day climate of Nigeria were investigated by analyzing the historical temperature and rainfall data records in the context of climate change. The associated potential impacts and coping strategies were examined. The data for the study were collected from the archives of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NIMET), Oshodi Lagos and spanned from 1950 -2012. The basic data consist of monthly mean daily minimum and maximum temperatures and monthly rainfall totals in six

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... ogical stations selected from the various agro meteorological zones in Nigeria. These stations are Maiduguri, Kaduna, Makurdi, Enugu, Ibadan and Calabar. These basic data were converted to annual rainfall totals and annual mean daily minimum and maximum temperatures for the analyses. The non-parametric Mann-Kendall's (M-K) rank correlation tests, Time series plots and simple linear regression are the statistical tools used for the analyses. The M-K test results indicate upward trends in minimum and maximum temperature that are significant at the 1% level in all the stations. The M-K test results indicate average downward trends in rainfall for Maiduguri, Kaduna and Makurdi of which only Makurdi is significant at the 5%level. The M-K trend tests further indicate upward trends in rainfall for Enugu, Ibadan and Calabar which are not statistically significant at the chosen significance levels of 1% and 5%. All the M-K trend tests are corroborated by the Time series plots. The potential effects of these trends, the challenges therein, and some coping strategies to help in environmental management are discussed.