Southern Ghana to record more rains this year — GMET

THE Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMET) says the southern parts of the country will register more rains than what was recorded within the same period last year.

According to the Agency, “The distribution of March-April-May seasonal cumulative rainfall, both in time and space, is expected to be mostly normal to below normal for most parts of the southern part of the country, while the April-May-June season is expected to be above normal 2019.”

For the northern part, rainfall is expected to start in April, which would be a normal pattern, the GMET added.

Strong winds and lightning

At a press conference in Accra yesterday to outline the seasonal forecast for this year’s major rainy season, the Deputy Director and Head of Research and Applied Meteorology, Mrs Francisca Martey, said at the peak of the rainfall season, there was a high probability of heavy rains accompanied by strong winds and lightning which could lead to localised floods.

The media encounter formed part of activities for the celebration of World Meteorological Day that is observed on March 23 every year. The theme for this year’s celebration is: “The Sun, the Earth and the weather.”

Mrs Martey, therefore, urged the public to regularly monitor daily weather forecasts before leaving home and that when it became necessary, people living in flood-prone areas should move to higher grounds.

“Citizens should move to safer places in case of a storm or strong winds,” she added.

Cessation

On the cessation of the rainfall season, Mrs Martey explained that early to normal cessation of the rainfall season was likely to occur over most places in southern Ghana.

“The cessation dates for the forest areas as well as the South Eastern Coast will be mostly normal. It is expected that Kumasi, Atebubu, Dunkwa and its surrounding areas will have a prolonged season before the rains stop”, she said.

For the northern part of the country, she said, the onset of the rainy season would be in April and May and was expected to end in October and they would also experience between 200 and 400mm rainfall.

She further explained that rainfall expected for March-April-May was about 300-400 millimetres for the East Coast (including Aflao to Winneba), 305-620mm for the West Coast (Winneba to Axim), 300-350mm for the forest areas and 400-450mm for the Transition zone (parts of the Ashanti, Bono and Oti regions).

She explained that there would be early to normal onset dates and that was expected all over the southern part of the country. However, places such as Kpando, Ho and Atebubu and their environs would experience late onset of the rains.

Also, she said, at the beginning of the season, normal dry spells were expected while towards the end of the season, longer to normal dry spells were expected over the southern regions of Ghana.

“Atebubu and Prang will, however, have longer dry spells during the beginning of the Season. Kade, Kpando and Dunkwa will also have normal to longer dry spell occasions during the early part of the season.

It is forecasted that Sunyani and Half-Assini will experience shorter dry spells towards the end of the season,” she noted.