'It can only get warmer from now' - the Met

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Friday August 13, 2010 00:00

But suddenly, when most were looking forward to warmer temperatures, the mercury dipped again.

'It is a cold spell, which is a normal occurrence at this time of the year,' says the Director of Meteorological Services, Phetogo Phage.

A cold spell is defined by els.about.com as a 'sudden, often unexpected, or short period of cold weather'. The past four days have actually been colder than recent weeks as winter slowly but surely made way for spring.

Phage says the sudden drop in temperatures is nothing out of the ordinary. He says contrary to popular wisdom, the month of August actually falls within the winter season.

'We have divided the year in to two seasons, winter and summer,' Phage reveals. 'Winter is from May to August. Therefore, people should not be surprised that it has been cold for the past few days.'

Principal Meteorologist, Radithupa Radithupa, says there has been a cold current over the Atlantic Ocean since the beginning of the week, which passed on to South Africa's Cape Province. 

The air then passed on to the Kgalagadi District in Botswana on Monday and reached most of the southern part of the country on Tuesday. By Wednesday, the cold current had reached the northern parts of this country. 

'The cold air is still circulating around the country, Radithupa says. 'But we expect it to pass on Saturday.'

In the past two weeks, the maximum temperature in Gaborone was 22 degrees Celsius, then it rose to 24 degrees Celsius last week but suddenly dipped to 19 degrees Celsius during the course of this week. 

Shakawe in the northwest recorded 27 degrees Celsius over the past two weeks, the following week 30 degrees Celsius before plummeting to 22 degrees Celsius yesterday. 

Jwaneng, which is almost in the South Temperate Zone, recorded 22 degrees Celsius, then improved to 27 degrees Celsius. This week, temperatures in the diamond-mining town dipped to a maximum of only 18 degrees Celsius. However, the good news is that it can only get warmer because August is the last month of the winter season. 

Phage says September is a transition month from winter to summer, a wet season compared to winter.  'October to March is the wet season, or summer,' he says.