NORMAL to below average rains are expected to start in Dar es Salaam next week with the possibility of pockets of downpour likely to cause damages on the infrastructure also forecasted, the country’s weather agency announced yesterday.
“There is a possibility of heavy rains
for a short period of time in the first week of April and authorities
and the public at large should hence take precautionary measures,” the
Director General of Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA), Dr Agnes
Kijazi, told reporters in the city yesterday.
Originally, the weather agency predicted
that Dar es Salaam and surrounding areas would start receiving the
March-May (Masika) rains in the second or third week of March. But
increased warming in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean changed the
climate patterns.
“Increased warming due to climate change is responsible for the delayed rains.
We now expect the rainfalls to start in
the first week of April,” Dr Kijazi said. So far, weather forecasts in
other areas of the country are turning out as predicted by the weather
agency, the country’s chief meteorologist explained.
Dr Kijazi made the explanation in
response to questions from journalists on the sidelines of TMA’s
Workers’ Council annual general meeting, which started in Dar es Salaam
yesterday. She went on to explain that the agency has acquired an
apparatus known as ‘cluster computer’, which will make it possible for
the agency to analyse meteorological products from smaller areas.
“We have only two weather centres in Dar
es Salaam and yet 10 such centres are required. If such facilities are
in place, we will be able to provide weather reports for smaller areas
unlike now where we issue report for the whole city,” she explained.
Speaking earlier, a member of the TMA
Advisory Board, Engineer James Ngeleja, hailed the agency for producing
accurate weather reports despite shortage of funds, equipment and
manpower to perform its duties.
TMA has been issued with the International Standard Organisation (ISO) certification for producing accurate weather products
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