Africa weather
image found at news.bbc.co.uk
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Steven Paxton's photo of Tanzanian children waiting for rain clouds to
burst
A group of children pose under darkening skies in Tanzania, Lake Mtera
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By Heinz de Boer found at iol.co.za
People throughout South Africa, and particularly in rural communities, have lost
their lives because weather warnings did not reach them in time.
That's just one of the findings of the South African Weather Service, which met
media representatives in a bid to strengthen channels of communication that
could save millions in property and hundreds of lives.
Speaking at a networking workshop in Durban last week, prominent forecaster
Colin Anderson said weather staffers often had less than 20 minutes to warn
disaster-management institutions of imminent storms or cyclones that could
threaten lives.
"Nature
is beautiful even at its fiercest," wrote Jabu Mnguni, who took this
photograph of an electric storm in South Africa's coastal port of Durban.
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A case in point was a massive Midlands thunderstorm and associated flash flood
in 1995. In that incident, a small stream quickly became a raging torrent of
water that claimed the lives of more than 170 people within minutes.
"KZN in particular seems to be able to get four seasons of weather in one
day. In 1995 we were working with rudimentary equipment and I phoned too late.
By that time people had already died," Anderson said.
His sentiments have been backed by national SA
Weather Service forecaster Mnikeli Ndabambi, who admitted that the
relationship between disaster management and those who forecast natural
catastrophes had been "fragmented".
"It had always been an almost international trend in past years to not care
if people using our 'product' could understand it. Then we started asking about
what role we played in the mistakes that were reported. There is definitely a
big need for a greater understanding of weather and climate. Global warming is
no longer a debate.
"Often we don't have much time to get information out about severe storms,
but then we find the message did not get to the public. And even when it does,
they panic.
"That's why we need to educate them, because weather warnings will only be
useful if they have been understood and acted on," Ndabambi said.
Meanwhile, Anderson has warned that KZN may not have seen the last of
destructive weather phenomena in a year that has seen wildfires destroy 250
000sq km of land and waves devour portions of the coast.
"At this time of year, high-pressure weather systems start moving south and
we get horrendous winds. Winds of up to 100km/h have been recorded in the
interior, and if fires start in these conditions, they will simply go until they
reach a natural barrier.
"We will be watching the coastal low-pressure systems like a hawk because
behind them we get the south-westerly 'buster' that can be very dangerous to
maritime and aviation-related activities," Anderson concluded.
