Posted on September, 16, 2020 at 09:12 am
The Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services has predicted that Malawi will normal rainfall during the 2020/2021 rainfall season which starts next month.
This was disclosed by MET director Jolamu Nkhokwe during a media briefing in Blantyre on Monday.
According to Jolamu, s the season will be influenced by La Nina conditions which are an unusual cooling of waters over the Eastern Central Equatorial Pacific Ocean which are known to bring more rains over Southern Africa including Malawi.
“Because of the La Nina conditions, extreme weather events such as floods in prone areas are likely to occur due to heavy rains while some parts of the country are likely to experience pockets of prolonged dry spells during the season,” said Nkhokwe.
The Met director has since advised users from the agricultural sector to seek advice from the Ministry of Agriculture when applying the rainfall forecast in decision making such as when to plant crops.
Nkhokwe has also advised the Department of Disaster Management Affairs and Malawians in general to be alert to any threat of disaster that may arise due to the forecas
He further said from October to December 2020, southern and central areas will experience normal to above normal rainfall where as the northern parts of the country will experience normal to below normal rainfall.
Nkhokwe further said from January to March 2021 all parts of the country will receive heavy rainfall with pockets of dry spells.
Malawi used to experience flash floods only in the lower shire but lately due to climate change even cities atrial also experiencing flash floods.
Source: Nyasa Times