The Director of Research at the Ghana Metrological Agency, Mr. Charles Kweku York, has predicted more rainfall in the southern half of the country this year,\u00a0than was recorded in 2017.<\/p>\n
Outlining the onset and cessation dates of the 2018 rainy season, Mr. York says the rains are expected to start in April and continue till July.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe forecast for the northern part of the country is not available, but for the southern half, we are going to have normal to above normal rainfall, we are going to heavy downpours. So if we don\u2019t do our things right we are going to have floods when our draining systems are all chocked. With the storms, it could rain for between 30 to 45 minutes and it’s over but it\u2019s going to be very busy. And we are going to have rainy days, good rainfall days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe forecast for 2018 is going to be above normal rainfall, for most places in the southern parts of the country. We are going to have a relatively [early] onset and [late] cessation and that is going to give us a long rainy season for 2018. And we don\u2019t envisage having long dry spells in between rainfall events and that is going to have a negative implication on our farming activity. The southern parts are from the Brong Ahafo Region to the coastal regions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giving the forecast for the year during the launch of this year’s World Meteorological Day, Charles Kweku York cautioned the public and government to put radical measures in places to avert any possible negative effects.<\/p>\n
He also advised the public to avoid holding metallic objects and standing beside electricity poles during the storms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Accra Mayor and the user agencies and all who matter should take precautionary measures because GMet says this is what is going to take place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Acting Director General of the Ghana Metrological Agency, Dr.Michael Tanu also said the ignorance of the public on weather-related issues often results in government spending large sums of money to deal with the adverse aftermaths.<\/p>\n
\u201cLarge sums of money are used for emergency response and infrastructure reconstruction. To this effect, investing in disaster prevention mechanisms, preparedness and early warning systems are important for sustained development. It is in this light that the 2018 WM Day celebration theme seeks to create the awareness of the need to be ‘Weather-ready and climate-smart’.”<\/p>\n
Speaking at the launch of the WMD slated for March 23th, on the theme \u201cweather-ready, climate-smart\u201d Michael Tanu was optimistic this year’s public lecture as part of this year\u2019s celebration would ensure that citizens are educated on the effects of the adverse weather conditions and how best to manage them.<\/p>\n
\u201cGMet will have a week-long programme to bring to the fore, experts\u2019 views on some pressing issues of weather and climate for national development. A public lecture would be held at Ghana Airport premises at GATA. And this opportunity would be used to inform the public and its stakeholders on how to be weather-ready and climate-smart to reduce the impact of weather and climate disasters. And we expect this to increase awareness of climate information in our daily activities. And on Friday, we will have a Durbar, launching a Central Analysis and Forecast office (CAFO),” he added.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Director of Research at the Ghana Metrological Agency, Mr. Charles Kweku York, has predicted more rainfall in the southern half of the country this year,\u00a0than was recorded in 2017. Outlining the onset and cessation dates of the 2018 rainy season, Mr. York says the rains are expected to start in April and continue till […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":411239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[18113],"yoast_head":"\n