Record rainy season for north, central

THE 2010-11 rainy season is one for the record books in several parts of Namibia, rainfall figures released by the Meteorological Service of Namibia at the end of last week confirmed.

The current rainy season, which is only coming to a close at the end of April, has already been the wettest in almost 80 years in parts of central Namibia and in the central north of the country, the figures show.In Windhoek and at Ondangwa the record rainy season of 1933-34 has now been surpassed, while the current season is coming close to also eclipsing the record at Rehoboth, which also dates back to 1933-34. Rainfall totals from October to the end of March this year show that at Ondangwa and the Windhoek Met Office the current rainy season is the wettest since the start of rainfall records, which date back to 1893 for Windhoek and 1916 for Ondangwa.At the Windhoek Met Office, the total rainfall measured from the start of the rainy season to the end of March is almost three times as much as is measured in the same period in an average rainy season. At Rehoboth, more than three times the average rainfall was measured from October to the end of March, while at Ondangwa more than double the normal rainfall was recorded during the same period.The 320,9 millimetres of rain recorded at the Windhoek Met Office this January already set a new record, making that month the wettest on record at that weather station, where rainfall statistics have been kept since 1893. The previous wettest month recorded at the Windhoek Met Office was January 2006, with 312,3 mm, with the 312,2 mm measured during March 1954 now in third place.On average, a total of 69,6 mm of rain is measured at the Windhoek Met Office during March. This year, 212,8 mm – more than three times the normal total – was measured during March.This brought the seasonal total at the Windhoek Met Office from October to the end of March up to 865,9 mm. In a normal rainy season, a total of 319,7 mm is recorded at this weather station from October to the end of March.The 865,9 mm measured from October to March this season surpasses the record of 762,3 mm recorded at the Windhoek Met Office during the entire 1933-34 rainy season.At Ondangwa, a seasonal total of 805,2 mm recorded during 1933-34 was the highest since rainfall records started being kept there in 1916. This year, a new seasonal record of 944,8 mm was recorded at Ondangwa from October to the end of March – a period when that town receives about 417,3 mm of rain in an average year.While the rainfall records for Rehoboth kept by the Meteorological Service are not entirely complete since their start in 1916, the available figures show that the wettest rainy season at that town was 1933-34, when 716,6 mm was measured from December to the end of April. This rainy season, 648,5 mm of rain has been recorded at Rehoboth from October to the end of March – a period in which Rehoboth normally receives some 201,2 mm of rain.This season’s total at Rehoboth so far is already the second highest on record for that town.Other places where exceptionally high rainfall figures have been recorded from October to the end of March include (with the average figure over the same period in brackets) Ruacana, with 804,9 mm (normal: 403,6 mm), Rundu with 702,5 mm (533,7 mm), Okaukuejo with 579,7 mm (323,5 mm), Grootfontein with 834,5 mm (519,3 mm), Kalkfeld with 658,9 mm (323,6 mm), Aranos with 456,7 mm (175,2 mm), Gibeon with 459,2 mm (137,7 mm) and Keetmanshoop with 239 mm (133,5 mm).

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