The Rwanda Meteorology Agency on Friday warned that parts of Eastern province and Southern provinces of the country are likely to face unusual dry spells.
This situation is similar to those that befell the country in 2016, 2010 and 1996, the weather watchdog said.
he 2016 dry spell period was Rwanda’s longest drought in six decades and affected food security.
More than 47,300 households with over 230,000 people suffered from the drought that hit the country, several parts of Eastern Rwanda mostly affected.
Speaking at the occasion, Anthony Twahirwa, Division Manager of Weather/Climate Services and Applications at Meteo Rwanda explained that Rwanda is facing climate change effects like other countries in the world based on the UN-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) released weeks ago.
“the outlook is supplemented by daily updates of different timescales 10-days forecasts and regular monthly forecast updates and advisories,” he said.
Due to global warming, trend analysis for the period since 1971 showed a temperature increase of 1.4°C has been recorded since 1970 in Rwanda.
Reacting to the forecasts, Aimable Gahigi, the Director General of the agency urged different institutions to take measures in coping with the extreme events.
“More efforts are needed to prevent disasters and strengthen resilience,” Gahigi said.
The expected near normal rainfall during September to December 2021 may lead to extreme weather phenomena such as dry spells, localized flooding, landslides, strong winds and other related weather extremes events in some parts of the country, it said.
CU/abj/APA