Posted on October, 11, 2019 at 11:15 am
THE coming November to April rains will be enough for crop production in most parts of the country that receive rainfall once a year, the Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) has declared. Speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday, TMA director general Dr Agnes Kijazi said that during the period soil moisture is expected to be sufficient for farming in most areas.
The November-April rains also known as seasonal rains are specific for the western, central, southwestern highlands, southern regions and the southern coast. These regions experience a unimodal rainfall pattern, a single prolonged period in the year.
During the period, short periods of heavy rains may result in water accumulation leading to floods, carrying the risk of outbreaks of water-borne diseases. This is especially true of areas with poor sewage systems in urban areas and where there is a shortage of clean and safe water.
“Based on the current and expected climatic patterns, there is an elevated chance of normal to above normal rains over most parts of unimodal areas, with exception of the far western side of the country where mainly normal rains are expected,” she said.
Other periods of the year are expected to have low rainfall probability due to progressive warming over the Central Indian Ocean, the director noted.
TMA has also issued advisories and early warnings to various weather sensitive public agencies concerned with agriculture and food security, livestock and wildlife, natural resources and tourism, transport and communications, energy and water, local authorities, health and disaster management.
The climate outlook by TMA shows that rains are likely to be above normal for most parts of Dodoma, Singida,Tabora, Mbeya, Njombe, Songwe, Iringa, Ruvuma, the southern sector of Morogoro, Lindi and Mtwara regions.
On the other hand areas like Kigoma, Katavi and Rukwa regions are expected to feature mainly normal rains.
“Enhanced rainfall is likely during November 2019 and January 2020, with the season likely to have reduced rainfall in December 2019 and February 2020,” part of the outlook projection specified.
Rains are expected to commence in the fourth week of October 2019 over Kigoma region and spread neighbouring areas in the first week of November.
Similarly, rains over most areas of the southwestern highlands and southern coast are likely to cease by the first week of May. However, over central and western areas rains are expected to cease by the fourth week of April, the outlook projection added.
Source: IPP Media