Met forecasts heavy rains from today
The Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services (DCCMS) has forecast a week-long downpour in the country from today.
In a weather update made available to The Nation on Wednesday, the department says for about a week, widespread rains associated with locally downpours are expected across Malawi up to January 20.
Reads in part the statement: “As from Sunday, January 17, widespread rains are expected due to an influx of Congo air mass into most parts of the country and the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone [ITCZ] being active over the southern areas. Otherwise, generally warm to hot weather conditions are expected across the country during daytime.”
In an interview later, DCCMS director Jolamu Nkhokwe said from January 10 to Wednesday, fairly widespread rains associated with locally downpours were expected to persist mainly over the central and northern areas of the country.
He attributed the situation to the combined effects of an influx of pulses of Congo air mass and the presence of ITCZ, which remains active and oscillating over the central and northern areas while southern areas experience scattered to sporadic or isolated thundery showers.
Over the past weeks, as predicted earlier, Southern Region and some parts of Central Region have been receiving scattered to sporadic rains with other parts of Central Region and Northern Region receiving normal rains.
Ellen Kululanga, DCCMS head of public weather services and spokesperson, described the development as normal in the wake of El Nino as predicted earlier through a seasonal weather forecast.
El Nino brings dryness in the southern bloc of Africa and wetness in the eastern part of Africa, including Tanzania and Kenya.
Kululanga said with Malawi lying on the peripheral of eastern and southern Africa, the Southern Region would inevitably experience dry spells while Northern Region and some parts of Central Region experience normal rainfall because of their proximity to the eastern part of Africa.
News that rains would start falling evenly across the regions should come as a relief to farmers and the country at large after a prolonged dry spell that has damaged crops.
Two weeks ago, The Nation spoke to several agricultural development divisions (ADDs) who said the dry spell had scorched crops.
Blantyre ADD deputy programme manager Aggrey Kamanga and Palichi Munyenyembe, district agriculture development officer (Dado) for Machinga, confirmed in separate interviews that the situation was dire.
Said Kamanga: “For the past week, we have experienced dry spells in some parts of the ADD such as Phalombe, Blantyre, Chiradzulu and Mulanje and we hope the situation will improve very soon.” n
