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Be wary of weather change related disasters

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THERE have been some changes in our weather pattern that have resulted in disasters that were not previously experienced or seen.
Floods, earthquakes and cyclones among other weather related disasters have been experienced all over the world in magnitudes that were not felt before, resulting in numerous deaths of innocent people.
Most of these disasters unfortunately occur in places that either have no disaster preparedness mechanisms in place or are hit when least expected making intervention difficult.
The recently experienced Tokwe Mukorsi national disaster and the floods in Tsholotsho took people by surprise and exposed flaws in terms of disaster preparedness in the country.
The goodwill of many people in the corporate world and individuals saw the victims assisted in various ways. While preparedness for such situations is advised through constant weather updates from the Meteorological Services Department (MSD) and other institutions, when disasters strike sometimes panic takes over.
Weather changes that have been occurring are attributed by weather experts to a host of things, among them, deforestation, gas emissions (which developing countries contribute minimally to) and many other issues.
What is common to many people is the rise in temperatures during summer while winter has been characterised by very low temperatures and in some cases the change in agro-ecological zones.
Speaking to The Patriot on the change in weather patterns, MSD agro-meteorologist and forecaster, John Mupuro said, the current weather patterns show extreme patterns which if done nothing about could worsen.
“What we have noticed is that we are experiencing extreme high and low temperatures both in hot and winter periods,” Mupuro said.
“The seasonal average temperatures show that temperatures have risen and that is the general trend across the country.
“The rain seasons have longer dry spells than normal and when it rains, the rainfall is devastating and heavy in most cases destroying infrastructure.”
Mupuro said science has shown that the rise in temperatures has subsequent consequences.
“By saying that temperatures are increasing, it means that evaporation is also increasing which is what is causing moisture stress to crops,” he said.
“Studies have shown that for every degree rise in temperature, evaporation increases by seven fold so even by a small margin of temperature rise you can be assured of increased evaporation.
“All this causes moisture stress to crops such that even when the rains come, they find the soil very dry and soil erosion increases.
“This has also seen differential heating of surfaces causing various wind thermals that may cause infrastructure destruction especially strong winds.”
Another weather forecaster, Ebedia Hodera said the changes in temperatures have resulted in the shifting of agro-ecological zones previously known.
“These changes in temperatures have seen violent storms and lots of frosty winters because the temperatures have become extreme,” said Hodera.
“Some preliminary studies have even shown that the agro-ecological zones have changed.
“What we have seen which has not yet been published is that some regions have shrunk like regions one and two while regions three, four and five have become bigger.
“The MSD and various stakeholders are currently in the process of re-defining these agro-ecological zones and availability of funds will determine when the new agro-ecological zones will be published.”
Hodera said more should be done to ensure that the weather changes do not become worse.
“What we need to do is to adapt to these changes and mitigate them,” Hodera said. “We need to reduce our impact on the climate by not cutting down trees, reducing gaseous emissions like methane, nitrous gases and carbon dioxide.
“While it is true that developing countries do not emit a lot of emissions, we have some activities that contribute minutely to emitting gases.
“Our agricultural activities, for instance, are not climate smart because of the fertilisers we add to the soils.
“The garbage that we heap produces methane and we need to utilise bio-digesters so that we can use the gas for cooking purposes.
“If people do not act now and reduce their impact on climate change then we are likely to experience and see more changes in our weather patterns or else we will push the thresholds too far to levels unprecedented.
“The unfortunate thing is that what we do triggers some extreme changes elsewhere and what happens elsewhere triggers some changes here.”
While the sun and the rain bring smiles to our faces and let us experience the good that nature brings, extreme weather conditions can leave people vulnerable. Our responsible actions could go a long way in understanding our current weather, inevitably saving lives.

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