By Gift Briton
The Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) has issued an alert to warn residents across Northwest, Northeastern, Central, Eastern, and Coastal regions of the country against strong winds of more than 40 knots (20.6 M/S) and very high waves of more than 2.5 meters expected from Friday 3rd to Saturday 4th June, 2022.
The areas that are likely to be affected include: Turkana, Marsabit, Samburu, Isiolo, Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Meru, Kitui, Makueni, Taita Taveta, Tana River, Lamu, Kilifi, Mombasa, and Kwale counties.
The possible impacts of the strong winds include roofs being blown off, trees being uprooted and structural damages. While for coastal residents, the very high waves over the Indian ocean may lower visibility, causing capsizing of boats and threatening the safety of those engaging in maritime activities.
However, KMD notes that the wind speed is likely to reduce to 25 knots from Sunday 5th to Monday 6th June 2022 with the wave height also reducing to to 2.2 meters on Monday 6th June 2022.
Meanwhile, most parts of the country are expected to be dry in the next four days with average rainfall expected over some parts of the Highlands West of the Rift Valley, Lake Victoria Basin, Central and South Rift Valley, Highlands East of the Rift Valley and the Coast, according to the organization’s weekly forecast.
Furthermore, both daytime (maximum) temperatures and night time (minimum) temperatures are likely to be moderate.
According to the organization, rainfall was recorded over several parts of the country in the last seven days where day-time (maximum) temperatures increased over some stations and decreased over others while night-time (minimum) temperatures increased over most parts of the country.
Isolated storms also occurred in a number of counties including Trans-Nzoia, Kakamega and Kiambu with the highest seven-day rainfall total (108.4mm) recorded at Butere Rainfall Station in Kakamega County.
Comparing the previous review period (16- 22 May 2022) to the current review period (23-29 May 2022), KMD noted that there was a general increase in rainfall amounts over several parts of the country and that day-time (maximum) temperatures increased over some stations.
