Met predicts widespread rains first week of December
The Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services (MET) has predicted fairly widespread rainfall associated with locally heavy downpours over the country this week.
In a statement issued by director Jolamu Nkhokwe, the department attributed the rains to the combined effects of a convergence ahead of pressure rises moving from the south and progressively sweeping northwards and an influx of pulses of Congo air mass.
“During the first week of December the main rain bearing system namely, the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is evident over Southern Tanzania and occasionally slides to the northern tip of Malawi affecting the northern parts of the country before getting fully established over Malawi either during the second or third week of December,” reads the statement in part.
Nkhokwe said this means that from October to December 2016 the greater part of the country will have experienced generally favourable rainfall amounts with decreased amounts over some parts of central and northern Malawi.
“During October to December 2016, the greater part of southern half of the country will have normal to above normal rainfall amounts while the greater part of northern half will have normal to below normal.
During the period January to March 2017, the greater part of the country is expected to experience normal to above normal rainfall amounts. Overall, the greater part of the country is going to experience normal to above normal rainfall amounts during October 2016 to March 2017,” he added.
He further said from January to March 2017 many areas of the country are expected to experience good rainfall with some areas experiencing heavy rainfall that will result in floods and suppressed rains in drought prone areas.
“A larger part of the Southern region has experienced timely onset while some parts of the Central and Northern Malawi are likely to experience timely to delayed onset bearing in mind that onset of rains over Southern Malawi and some parts of the Centre is normally mid-November while normal onset for most of the North and some parts of the Centre is mid-December,” he explained.
According to Nkhokwe, rainfall is expected to stop by end of March over Southern and Central Malawi extending to April over the North.
He has since advised the general public to pay attention to daily weather updates on local media and take precautionary measures repeating his warning that the onset of the first rains are characterised by thunder and lightning associated with strong winds.
He said this is caused by the release of accumulated energy in the atmosphere due to the prolonged heating by the sun.
According to MET, La Nina event has developed in the central tropical Pacific Ocean along the equator influencing weather conditions during 2016/17 rainfall season over southern Africa and Malawi.
