Livingstone residents were treated to early showers of rain yesterday, this caught many unaware and left them scrambiling for cover, as the onset of the wet season draws in.
For the town, the wet season, run from November to March.
Apparently, during the entire year, the rain in the town falls for 73 days and collects up to 691.7mm (27.2″) of precipitation, the month with the most rainfall in Livingstone, Zambia, is January when the rain falls for 16 days and typically aggregates up to 173.7mm (6.8″) of precipitation.
Meanwhile, Livingstone does not have the standard winter and summer seasons. Instead, it has the rainy, dry and hot seasons. The dry season, from April to August, is when the land is green and lush; especially the early months of the dry season.
Meanwhile, the regional rainfall pattern for the 2020/21 agricultural season is said to be encouraging as the bulk of southern Africa is expected to receive adequate rainfall throughout the growing season.
According to experts, this is an improvement from the previous season when less rainfall resulted in adverse impacts on agriculture, water resources and hydropower generation in most of the region.
The latest outlook produced by regional climate experts forecasts that there will be normal to-above-normal rainfall across most of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) between October 2020 and March 2021.
The consensus forecast was produced by the 24th Southern African Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF 24) that met virtually on August 27-28.
The SARCOF forecast is divided into two parts, covering October-November-December (OND) 2020 and January-February-March (JFM) 2021.
The forecast shows that the bulk of the Sadc region is likely to receive high rainfall termed normal to above-normal between October and December, although north-western Angola, bulk of the Democratic Republic of Congo, eastern Madagascar, northern Malawi, northern Mozambique, Seychelles, United Republic of Tanzania, and north-eastern Zambia are forecast to receive low rainfall termed normal to below-normal.