Online Reporter
Precious Manomano
THE rains experienced in parts of the country over the past two days are not an indication of the start of the 2026/27 rainy season, the Meteorological Services Department has said.
MSD deputy director for public weather services Mr Isaac Masawana said the rains were a result of a cloud system moving into the country from the west and were part of normal weather variations.
He said the system was expected to clear from tomorrow, with sunny conditions forecast to return.
“We had a cloud system that was moving from the west into the country and it caused some thundershowers that we experienced overnight,” said Mr Masawana.
He said the weather system should not be confused with the onset of the summer rainfall season.
“We are expecting this system to start clearing tomorrow and we expect blue skies to come back and sunny conditions,” Mr Masawana said.
“This has nothing to do with the start of the season. We are still far away from the season onset.”
Mr Masawana said rainfall could occur outside the normal rainy season as part of natural weather variability.
“It’s just like weather is weather. Even in winter it can rain. So this has nothing to do with the start of the season,” he said.
His comments come at a time when Zimbabwe is preparing for the 2026/27 summer cropping season, with the MSD seasonal outlook indicating generally below-normal rainfall during the season, particularly in the October to December period, caused by the El Niño phenomenon, the worst in recent history.
The seasonal outlook, however, does not mean that the country will receive no rainfall, with the MSD warning that individual rainfall events, including isolated heavy storms, can still occur.
The department has said the onset of the rainy season will be determined through established meteorological indicators rather than isolated rainfall events.
