Southern Region and parts of Central experiencing prolonged dry spell
The Department of Climate Change & Meteorological Services is alerting the general public that the Southern Region and parts of the Centre are experiencing a prolonged dry spell and is expected to extend to Tuesday next week though there are chances that some places may exceed to more days.
In its statement, the Met Department says the dryness is moderate over many places but severe conditions are along the Shire Valley. However, the Northern Region and lakeshore areas are expected to continue experiencing isolated thunderstorms with rain.
The prolonged dry spells are common during El Niño years and this is due to a typical El Niño season, which suppresses rainfall in southern Africa and enhances rainfall over eastern Africa and Malawi.
Being in the transition zone, Malawi’s Southern part sometimes behave like the southern Africa and the Northern Region is like eastern Africa — though the delineation boundary varies from year to year.
“The seasonal forecast that was issued prior the beginning of the 2023/2024 rainfall season, indicated the high chance of Malawi receiving normal to below-normal rainfall amounts across the country.
“The possibility of delayed onset exceeding two weeks was also highlighted. From the observations from 1st October to current, the rainfall onset has set in many places though in some areas it was a false onset while in others the onset was superseded by the prolonged dry spells.
“In summary, October had below normal rainfall over the northern areas while the scenario changed in the month of November, where the drier conditions were more in central and southern Malawi.”
The Department further says the prolonged dry spells being experienced are also accompanied by excessive temperatures, and therefore “it is advisable to implement agricultural practices that retain soil moisture”.
For more information on possible practices suitable in their area, farmers are advised to consult the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to National Geographic, El Niño is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
El Niño is the ‘warm phase’ of a larger phenomenon called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). La Niña, the ‘cool phase’ of ENSO, is a pattern that describes the unusual cooling of the region’s surface waters. El Niño and La Niña are considered the ocean part of ENSO, while the Southern Oscillation is its atmospheric changes.
El Niño has an impact on ocean temperatures, the speed and strength of ocean currents, the health of coastal fisheries, and local weather from Australia to South America and beyond.
El Niño events occur irregularly at two to seven-year intervals. However, El Niño is not a regular cycle, or predictable in the sense that ocean tides are.
El Niño was recognized by fishers off the coast of Peru as the appearance of unusually warm water and while National Geographic has no real record of what indigenous Peruvians called the phenomenon, Spanish immigrants called it El Niño, meaning ‘the little boy’ in Spanish.
When capitalized, El Niño means the Christ Child, and was used because the phenomenon often arrived around Christmas. The weather pattern soon came to describe irregular and intense climate changes rather than just the warming of coastal surface waters.
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