Joomla! Home | Understanding Rainfall and its occurrence |
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| Written by John Olzsewski | |||||
Page 2 of 3 For many years, personally, this problem persisted too. People from many walks of life would come round and query the rainfall. These same figures, means comparisons, would be presented. The feeling of unease persisted: I could not provide what they were looking for. The Regional Early Warning Unit training course I was invited to attend. This worthy presentation highlighted the cumulative rainfall factor persistently, whether it meant 10-daily or monthly means, as being the sole basis for output. The big penny had dropped. But what was the alternative? Southern Africa has seen the development of some worthy organizations from which the weather-watch output matches the needs of our unique situation. The University of the Witwatersrand has an esteemed Climate Research Group (Wits. CRG). Professor P.D. Tyson was among the members and later the leader. Eventually, to discuss the climate aspect, the “Climate Change and Variability in Southern Africa” volume was published. Within which, the author noted “Whether or not rainfalls on a given day is dependent on a variety of factors, including the degree of atmospheric perturbation, the type and depth of a particular synoptic disturbance, its position and thermal instability, the nature of the divergence field, the moisture distribution, the degree of convective activity, and so on,.... The net result may be a complicated set of events” To quote this detail regarding the Temperate or Tropical zones of the world will excite little enthusiasm. But in our sub-Tropical setting the fact is this: it is either all or nothing at all; and we experience quite a few of the “nothings at all” So there lay the path: “On a given day.” |
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