APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The greater part of the Horn of Africa is bracing for heavier than usual rainfall between January and March 2024, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC) has said.
“Following recent El Nino rains, wetter weather conditions are expected over southern and equatorial parts of the region, which include Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, southern Uganda as well as southwestern and northeastern Ethiopia” the center said in a statement last weekend.
It said the Horn of Africa region is generally dry during the period after the October-to-December short rain season, but climate change is altering the weather pattern.
“Normal to dry than normal conditions are expected over a few areas in central Kenya, and northern and western Tanzania,” the ICPAC added.
Besides the expected heavy rains, the ICPAC observed that temperatures would be higher than normal during the period.
The worst to be affected regions would include parts of northern Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, where temperatures may rise to between 32 and 40 degrees Celsius.
The Horn of Africa has, in the last year, experienced rapid changes in weather patterns, with the worst drought ending in March 2023, followed by El Nino rains in October and the expected heavy rains from January 2024.
The prolonged drought left 23.4 million people facing hunger and 5.1 million children acutely malnourished, according to the World Food Program.
Similarly, floods caused by El Nino rains killed about 300 people and displaced millions in Somalia, Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, noted the ICPAC.
MG/as/APA