The months of October, November and December was characterised but unusually heavy rains, that pounded across many safari destinations in East Africa. Although rain is usually expected in late November init December, it is not normally at the scale at which it occurred this time round.
What was supposed to be ‘short rains' turned torrential.It appears we were faced by a climatic phenomenon called the Indian Ocean Dipole, also known as Indian Niño. In short it is because of an irregular fluctuation of sea-surface temperatures so that the western Indian Ocean that borders the East African shores becomes alternately warmer and then colder than the eastern part of the ocean, leading to more storm clouds and, as a result, more rainfall in the mainland.
The rain caused havoc, from flooded rivers to landslides etc. The saw many safari vehicles swept away or damaged by floods, with many getting stuck on the muddy tracks or roads leading to or in the parks.
It appears we are just coming to the end of it, and we hope the coming months will not be extreme opposite of what we have just come through as that will not be good either. The months of February till late March is usually dry, with another long rain expected in April through May. However over the last few years, the climate has changed and what is expected doesn’t come as usual.
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