Flooding in Southern Africa continues, according to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Drought Monitoring Centre (DMC). This flooding has persisted throughout the rainy season, which is now largely ending in bulk of the SADC member states.
Some of the flooding was episodic, but in some areas, particularly Angola and Namibia, the flooding occurred over longer periods of time. Deluges in the upper Zambezi in Angola have spread to affect downstream areas. The excessive rains in parts of Namibia recently affected north-western Botswana as well. Madagascar was also struck by tropical cyclones a few weeks ago. Seasonal outlook updates from the DMC, which were disseminated in a timely fashion to the National Meteorological and Hydrological Centres and other stakeholders in the region, had predicted the recent above-normal rainfall that led to flooding in the region.
These updates enable authorities in the countries affected by the floods (or droughts) to take necessary measures ahead of time.
