Namibia: Figures confirm January rains exceeded averages

23 February 2010, The Namibian
URL: http://www.namibian.com.na/news/full-story/archive/2010/february/article/figures-confirm-january-rains-exceeded-averages/

Windhoek:  Most of Namibia has experienced a wetter than normal January, according to an analysis of rainfall figures released by the Meteorological Service of Namibia last week.

Last year, large parts of Namibia - with the northeastern and southeastern parts of the country however bucking the trend - experienced exceptionally wet weather in February. So far this year, January has turned out to be the month for above average rainfall figures for most of the country. Again the far southeastern part of Namibia has not shared in this abundance of rain, though.
The entire rainy season is however still expected to result in normal to below normal rainfall over Namibia, Jennifer Moetie, Control Meteorological Technician at the Meteorological Service, said yesterday.

She said the forecast remains that in the period from January to March most of the country would receive normal to below normal quantities of rain. This is attributed to the El Niño weather phenomenon - a warming of the water in the central Pacific Ocean - which is associated with normal to below normal rains over Namibia, Moetie said.  The current El Niño is a relatively weak one, and is expected to continue to weaken, Moetie added.

Last month was characterised by fairly widespread and moderate to heavy rainfall in Namibia, according to the Meteorological Service's report on January's rainfall patterns. At most of the places where rainfall is monitored, above average quantities of rain were measured.   This was especially so in the northern and central parts of the country, the weather office reports.

Rainfall totals for the rainy season from October to the end of January reflect "near normal to above normal rainfall in the northeast and northern parts of the country at this stage of the season," it is stated in the report.   "In the central parts of the country, the cumulative seasonal rainfall is mainly above normal, with Windhoek depicting about 65% above normal. The extreme south remained fairly dry, except for isolated pockets which include the Warmbad area."

At Warmbad, 30 mm of rain was recorded in January. Its normal rainfall total for January is only 8,5 mm.  Both Karasburg and Ariamsvlei in the southwest remained dry over January, with no rainfall at all recorded there.  At Stampriet in the Hardap Region, the situation was the opposite. A total of 213 mm was measured at Stampriet during January - more than ten times as much as the 19,1 mm that is recorded there in an average January. From October to the end of January, Stampriet receives a total of 37 mm of rain in an average season.

Substantially higher than normal rainfall totals were also recorded at Gibeon (109 mm, compared to 34,4 mm in an average January), at Keetmanshoop (70,9 mm, against 26,6 mm in an average January), and at Koës (98,6 mm, compared to the normal January total of 35,9 mm).

At the Windhoek Met Office, the 212 mm of rainfall recorded during January was also more than double that location's average total of 85,6 mm in the first month of the year.

Similar trends were seen at Hochfeld northeast of Okahandja, where 266,6 mm of rain was measured during January (normal total for January: 116,3 mm), Kalkfeld (187,6 mm, compared to the normal January total of 92,1 mm), at Mururani on the southern border of the Kavango Region (317,8 mm, compared to 112,5 mm on average during January), and at Ondangwa (165,4 mm, compared to 118,4 mm in a normal January).

Grootfontein, where 129,4 mm was recorded during January, was one of few places in that part of the country where less than the average total for the month (153,7 mm) was received this year.
Grootfontein's total rainfall of 346,3 mm for the first four months of the rainy season from the start of October however exceeds the average total of 286,6 mm that is recorded at that location between October and the end of January.

At Katima Mulilo, a total of 365 mm was recorded from October to the end of January, compared to 407,8 mm in an average rainy season. At Nkurenkuru in the western part of the Kavango Region, 414 mm was measured from October to the end of January, whereas 337,5 mm is received at that town in that period in an average rainy season. The 525,8 mm that was recorded at Mururani between October and the close of January is also more than double the average total of 249 mm for that location in that period.

Likewise, Ondangwa's rainfall total of 283,7 mm from October to the end of January exceeded the total of 222 mm received there during that period in an average rainy season.

At Hochfeld, the total rainfall of 373,3 mm that was received from October to the end of January is 77 per cent more than the total of 210,4 mm normally recorded in that period. The same pattern could be seen at Steinhausen northeast of Windhoek, where 264,5 mm was measured from October to the end of January - 62 per cent more than the normal seasonal total of 163,3 mm received to the end of January.

At the Windhoek Met Office, too, the 262 mm received this rainy season to the end of January is 65 per cent more than the total of 158,7 mm recorded on average over the four months from October.

The 109 mm that was recorded at Gibeon during this period is a little more than double the total of 54 mm received at the Hardap Region town on average between October and the start of February. At Keetmanshoop, 79,2 mm was measured in this period this rainy season - compared to a previous average total of 52,3 mm.

Parts of the Etosha National Park however went against the trend seen over large areas of Namibia. Okaukuejo and Halali received a total of 114,2 mm and 152,8 mm of rain respectively from October to the end of January - well below the normal total of 164,2 mm and 211,2 mm respectively recorded at the two camps over the first four months of an average rainy season.