PEOPLE are forgetful when it comes to seasons and temperatures because when it is cold, it is always colder than the previous cold, and when it is hot, it’s hotter than ever.
This past weekend, it was hot at the coast, with the official temperatures climbing to just short of 43 degrees Celcius at Walvis Bay on Monday. Unofficial readings reported from 45 degrees to as high as 50 degrees Celcius.
A Walvis Bay resident, who called a local radio station to comment on the heat, nailed it: “It is deadly hot. It’s so hot, one can swallow the heat. It’s choking. No one will understand unless they experience this.”
People living on smallholdings along the Swakop River said that it was over 40 degrees in the shade.
“One would think that it would be better to get out of the shade when it is so hot, but where does one go then?” asked Peter Ermann, who lives next to the river.
Messages on social media ascribed the weather to an “equinox phenomenon” where the sun is closest to the earth – at the Equator. The source of this information was allegedly from Kenya, which is on the Equator, and who may know nothing about Namibia’s east weather conditions.
East weather along Namibia’s coast is hot – every time it occurs, and ironically, it mostly happens close to Easter, which is the end of Namibia’s summer season. Over the past few years, east weather has been scarce, compared to week-long strong and hot east winds which bring with it clouds of dust – and swarms of insects such as grasshoppers, flies and ladybirds.
Lately, it has been a few days long at most, and many times without the dust storms. This time, it was just hot, even in the cool of the night – and it was accompanied by millions of moths.
Residents at the DRC informal settlement said they were bitten all over by insects. Not just them, though. Others in other parts of town had to choose whether to sleep cool with as little clothes on as possible, risking being attacked by mosquitoes.
Forecaster at the Namibia Meteorological Service, Odillo Kgobetsi explained that east weather could be compared to a bicycle pump.
As high pressure is pumped from a bicycle pump, it heats up at the valve opening, where the air is squeezed out. So too does high pressure in the atmosphere push down towards the earth, exerting pressure on the air beneath it, and squeezing it out towards the west, over the Namib and the Atlantic.
The strength of the atmospheric high pressure will determine the strength and hotness of the wind, and blowing over the Namib desert also increases the heat due to the higher desert surface temperatures.
“It was hot all over the coast,” he told The Namibian yesterday. “As for the information on social media, one cannot always trust what is there because it would often be out of context.”
According to him, official temperature readings from calibrated standard instruments recorded the highest temperature at Walvis Bay (42,8 degrees), with Lüderitz recording 42 degrees, and Henties Bay recording 41 degrees Celcius.
“People may have recorded different readings, but these are the official readings we use,” he said.
According to Kgobetsi, ‘winds of change’ are in the air. In fact, as from yesterday, temperatures would start dropping, and by the end of the week, “the normal coastal weather” with south-western and northern winds with fog patches and colder temperatures can be expected.
But, east weather conditions could return also at a later stage, as this is the season for that.
Visitors to the coast over the long weekend prior to Namibia’s 27th Independence Day anniversary were, however, treated to real summer weather, which ‘forced’ thousands of them to popular bathing spots where they cooled down in the ocean, or public parks such as Dolphin Beach.
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