The Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services (MET) has predicted that the country is expected to receive normal rains in the 2020-2021 rainfall season.
This was revealed on Monday, September 14 at the government offices in Blantyre where
MET Director Jolam Nkhokwe was briefing the country on the rain forecast ahead of the 2020-2021 rainfall season.
Nkhokwe said the Global models are currently projecting a weak unusual cooling of waters over the Eastern Central Equatorial Pacific Ocean known as La Nina conditions which are known to bring more rains over Southern Africa including Malawi.
He then said during rainfall seasons that are affected by La Nina conditions, the country usually receives normal onset, progression and cessation of rains and said so will be this year as well.
“As MET we have worked very hard to come up with rainfall forecast for 2020-2021 rainfall season because we know that Malawi being agro based country, rains are vital for the betterment of our economy.
“Most areas in the southern and central regions will receive normal to above normal rainfall from this October while the northern region normal rainfall will start in January. Overall people should expect good rains in the 2020-2021 rainfall season,” said Nkhokwe.
He has since encouraged all users from the agricultural sector to seek advice from the Ministry of Agriculture when applying this released forecast in decision making such as when to plant.
He, however, indicated that since La Nina conditions are established, extreme weather events such as floods in prone areas are likely to occur due to heavy rains while some parts of the country are likely to experience pockets of prolonged dry spells during the season.
He has since advised all people who have settled in flood prone areas to immediately move to higher grounds before it is too late.
As a way of keeping the public updated on weather matters, the department has said it will continuously be issuing seasonal updates, ten-day agro-meteorological bulletins, weekly forecasts, five-day and daily forecasts
