Mid-January may spell end to rain

THE rain Namibia has enjoyed since New Year’s Eve is set to continue across the country until mid-January, according to Riaan van Zyl of the Windhoek weather bureau. Thereafter, the moisture will dissipate and rainfall will be below average for the remainder of the season, with sporadic downpours until winter sets in.

The New Year’s rains came from the north and not from the east as is usually the case, and form part of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, according to Simon Dirkse of the weather office at Hosea Kutako International Airport.Dirkse said he expected the volume of downpours to decrease by mid-week after significant falls over the weekend.He added yesterday that the rainy weather is expected to clear over the southern and western parts of Namibia today and tomorrow, while isolated thundershowers should continue to occur over the central parts of the country and scattered showers are forecast for the north.By Thursday, rainy weather is expected to expand to cover most of the country again, Dirkse said.Rainfall was reported from most parts of Namibia over the past weekend.According to figures provided by the Meteorological Service of Namibia’s office at Hosea Kutako International Airport yesterday, 49,8 millimetres of rain was measured at Keetmanshoop from Thursday to yesterday morning.At Mariental, 14 mm of rain was recorded yesterday morning.At Okongo in the Ohangwena Region 49,5 mm of rain was recorded from Thursday morning to Friday morning, while 9 mm was measured at Nkurenkuru in the western part of the Kavango Region and 20,5 mm was recorded at Katima Mulilo over the same period.From Friday morning to Saturday morning, Rundu received 7,5 mm of rain, 14,2 mm was recorded at Ondangwa, 6,6 mm at Otjiwarongo, 1,1 mm at Grootfontein and 15 mm at Goedemoed.Ondangwa received further heavy downpours on Saturday, with 74 mm measured at the town by yesterday morning.At Otjinene in the Omaheke Region 10,1 mm was measured yesterday morning, while 1,8 mm was recorded at Gobabis, 5 mm at the Met Office in Windhoek, 1,6 mm at Hosea Kutako International Airport, 7,7 mm at Rundu, 1,5 mm at Katima Mulilo and 0,5 mm at Grootfontein.In spite of the widespread rains over the past week, the overall rainfall outlook for the rest of the wet season still does not look promising. According to Van Zyl, Namibia’s dams will not take in significant quantities of water although Hardap is expected to increase marginally by one per cent or so.This may spell disaster for the Gobabis area, with no inflow so far into the Otjivero Dam, reservoir of sorts for the two Viljoen dams at the town. With copious rains in the highlands of southern Angola, the flow of the Okavango River is also expected to increase, the water reaching the delta in Botswana in about six months or so.With the absence of good rains during the remainder of the rainy season in February and March due to the presence of the El Niño weather phenomenon, maize farmers are expected to take strain.Planting is expected to be completed in the next week or so and only farmers who irrigate are predicted to harvest good crops.