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Blessings Chidakwa Herald Reporter
Zimbabwe should have normal to above normal rainfall during the coming summer cropping season although there are chances of normal-to-below normal rainfall in regions one and two in the very early stages of the season.
The Meteorological Services Department also warns that there could be prolonged dry spells during the season and tropical cyclones were highly likely.
There could be major storms and flash flooding and dams and rivers were likely to fill.
There are now five weather radar sets that can cover the country and track storms and automatic stations are filling gaps in the recording network.
Updated forecasts will be issued each month from the end of October.
The latest Zimbabwe seasonal forecast follows last Friday’s forecast by the Southern African Regional Climate Outlook Forum which also predicted that southern and central SADC countries, including Zimbabwe, should have rainfall that was normal to above normal.
Chief director for environment, climate and meteorological services Professor Prosper Matondi yesterday presented the seasonal forecast for the coming season at the national climate outlook forum at the Met Department offices in Harare.
“The MSD does carry an annual national climate outlook forum where the rainfall forecast for the upcoming season is presented for the national stakeholders and we have done that,” he said.
“Multi-sectoral stakeholders will use this for planning purposes. Therefore, weather and climate information is really valuable to all sectors of our economy as it contributes to enhancing socio-economic development, especially as we aim to achieve an upper middle income economy by 2030.”
Prof Matondi said in October, November and December this year, regions 1 and 2 were expected to have increased chances of normal-to-below-normal rainfall while region 3 would have increased chances of normal-to-above-normal rainfall.
But pushing the moving three-month forecast by a month, to now forecast for November this year to January next year, all regions are expected to have increased chances of rainfall that was normal to above normal.
Forecasts continue to improve. For December 2022-February 2023 region 1 is expected to receive normal-to-above-normal rainfall while regions 2 and 3 might have above-normal-to-normal rainfall.
And for January-March 2023 region 1 is expected to have normal-to-above-normal rainfall while regions 2 and 3 have chances of above-normal-to-normal rainfall.
“Implications for our advisory services for the 2022-2023 season are heavy storms followed by periods of elevated temperature that will be getting more frequent. There will be violent storms and flash floods that will occur during the season.
“There is likely to be prolonged dry spells that may unfold as the season goes by. The occurrence of tropical cyclones is highly likely during the season and therefore tracking and measurement will be enhanced by our radars and automated weather stations,” he said.
Prof Matondi said other expected implications may include prolonged high temperature periods, malaria and water-borne diseases, and the need for sufficient stocks of seed and fertilisers.
Soil conservation technologies had to be applied, livestock dipping and dosing chemicals were needed, water harvesting was recommended, water reserves were likely to be boosted. Excess inflow into the rivers and national dams as well as risk of riverine flooding is high.
Met Department director Mrs Rebecca Manzou said the increased support from the Government will go a long way in developing the department.
“The Government bought five radars, enough to cover the whole country. Radars are now casting and can track a storm and tell us exactly how much rainfall will be dumped. That is very important for us,” she said.
“Automatic weather stations were also bought for all our stations. We have 47 stations. This is part of modernisation. The automatic weather stations will be able to give us data for temperature, rainfall, sunshine hours and most of the things we normally measure as MSD to help us in our jobs.”
Government also bought new equipment to replace the old mercury based equipment.
“The automatic weather observing systems for our airports are quite expensive. They have been bought for the three international airports.
“The radars are coming and will be in four of our airports. So all the new radars the plan is that they need to have a new automatic weather observation system,” she said.
Mrs Manzou said the automatic weather observation systems are the ones used for making the airspace safe and to measure all the meteorological parameters that are needed.
Online Reporter