No end to the deluge

WEEKS of wet weather have left large parts of Namibia soaked so far this month – and more of the same can be expected this week.

Rainfall conditions remain favourable for most of the country this week, weatherman Simon Dirkse told The Namibian yesterday.
He said the northern half of the country is expected to have a 60 per cent chance of rain up to Friday, while in the southern part of Namibia a 30 per cent chance for rain is forecast.
A continuation of the wet weather appears set to push up rainfall totals in some areas of the country so far this rainy season to levels last seen during Namibia’s near record wet season of 2005-06.
A large part of Mariental was flooded in early 2006, after a massive inflow of water into the Hardap Dam prompted the opening of the dam’s gates and the release of water at a rate that overwhelmed the confines of the Fish River below the dam wall.
With huge quantities of water flowing into the Hardap Dam from the dam’s catchment area over the past two weeks, the dam’s sluice gates were kept open over the weekend.
NamWater’s Manager for Corporate Affairs, Johannes Shigwedha, told The Namibian yesterday that the inflow into the dam had increased to 1 000 cubic metres per second.
‘We have kept the gates opened since last week Wednesday,’ said Shigwedha. He said the dam was releasing water at a rate of 500 cubic metres per second.
Heavy rains that fell in Windhoek for about an hour on Thursday evening flooded some areas, created potholes in many roads, and led to some areas of the city recording rainfall totals so far this month that have come close to the city’s total rainfall in an entire average rainy season.
In the Eros area of Windhoek, rain gauges were filled to the 70 mm to 80 mm marks after a heavy thunderstorm on Thursday evening.
Continuing downpours over the rest of the weekend have brought the amount of rain measured in parts of the city to over 300 mm so far this month – well ahead of the total of 158 mm measured during the whole of February 2008 and more than three times the city’s normal February rainfall total of some 91 mm.
The full force of Thursday’s downpour missed the Windhoek Met Office near the city centre, though. At the Met Office, a total of 55,4 mm of rain was measured from Thursday to Saturday, said Dirkse.
He said although only 7,8 mm was measured at the Met Office on Friday and 5,4 mm on Saturday, 42,2 mm was recorded on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, 30 mm was measured at Suiderhof in Windhoek, while 34,9 mm was recorded at Grootfontein.
On Saturday, 29,3 mm was measured at Hosea Kutako International Airport outside Windhoek.
Elsewhere in the country, 35 mm was recorded at Katima Mulilo on Friday while 19,9 mm was recorded at Rundu.
On Thursday, Oshikuku in the Omusati Region recorded 15 mm. On Tuesday last week, 90 mm of rain had also been recorded at Oshikuku.
In the south of Namibia, 25,5 mm was recorded at Noordhoek at Keetmanshoop on Friday.
At Mariental, 16 mm of rain was measured on Friday, followed by 20,8 mm on Saturday, while at the Keetmanshoop Airport 15,5 mm was recorded on Friday.
werner@namibian.com.na; absalom@namibian.com.na