It's hot and wet

Slight relief can be expected in the excessive daytime temperatures experienced over large parts of the country in the past few months. Should predictions for rain hold, heavy falls are likely over the northeast and the //Karas Region today. The weather office based in Windhoek also predicted that heavy rainfall would be experienced yesterday in the western and central-northern regions of Namibia. It warned that today would be partly cloudy to hot, but very hot in the Hardap and Erongo regions. Warnings have been issued over the past few weeks that SADC is experiencing a heat wave and that the public should take precautionary measures to avoid heat-related illnesses. The SADC-Climate Services Centre's Heatwave and Heat Spells Alert System (HSAS) said that very high to extremely high temperatures have been experienced in most countries in the southern part of the region, namely Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, northern DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), southern Mozambique, eastern Swaziland, south-western Zimbabwe and southern fringes of Zambia. During the past few weeks daytime temperatures in Namibia have remained in the high thirties, while at some places it was over 40 degrees Celsius at some point. In the south places towns such as Maltahöhe yesterday recorded a minimum temperature of 24 degrees and reached a high of 36 degrees, while at Mariental the minimum temperature was 23 degrees and the maximum was 37 degrees. At Aranos the temperature was between 23 and 37 degrees. Sesfontein and Mariental will today reach highs of 38 degrees. According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS) unusually high temperatures and dryness have been recorded in southern Africa, including Namibia, and are expected to continue. The organisation says at the end of January many rainfall anomaly analyses suggested that the monsoon performance was one of the poorest on record in terms of extent and distribution. Much of southern Africa has been under the influence of a suppressed convective pattern, which resulted in a mid-season period with significantly low monthly totals and an anomalously low frequency of rainfall. The impacts of this past January can be felt on the long-term moisture anomalies, as many regions in Zambia, Mozambique, southern Malawi, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa are now experiencing less than 80% of their normal rainfall accumulation since the beginning of November. This dryness has led to increased concerns for drought, water availability and impacts on cropping activities. Ground conditions have degraded in parts of Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Zambia and western Mozambique. Currently Namibia's dams are at 38.2% of their capacity. This is still higher than at the same time last year, when the dams were 31.3% full. In the past week the total capacity of the dams in the country has decreased from 39% and there has been a decrease of 4.1 million cubic metres of water from the dams since last week. According to the dam bulletin, 15mm of rain was measured in the catchment area of the Swakoppoort Dam, but that did not have any significant impact on the dam level, which currently stands at 38.9% The average level of the dams in the central area is currently 32%, with the Von Bach Dam standing at 54.9%. Last year this time, these levels were 8.2% and 16.2%. According to the latest river bulletin issued on Friday, the Zambezi River at Katima Mulilo continues to rise gradually and is currently at 2.02m. Water levels remain higher than those of the same period last year. The Okavango River levels are gradually rising due to good rains received in the catchment over the past days. Rundu recorded 4.76m and Nkurenkuru recorded 2.36m. However, water levels remain lower than those of the same period last year.ELLANIE SMIT

It's hot and wet

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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It's hot and wet

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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