Mr. Michael Padi, Senior Meteorologist at the Ghana Meteorological Agency, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview, that the dry harmattan season was tapering off to make way for the major rainy season.

He said the Southern part of the country was expected to experience its first and major rainy season between the middle and ending of March and Northern Ghana, around May.Mr. Padi said the Southern part of the country, thus, would occasionally see isolated thunder storms and rains, especially the high ground and forest areas.

He said Accra for example experienced cases of isolated rainfall, with some areas having torrential rains, while others had just a few showers.Mr. Padi said Northern Ghana would continue to be dry and slightly hazy with some occasional showers, “but the dryness will pertain”.

He explained that during the pre-rainy season period, rainfall in the Northern part of the country would typically occur around the western parts of the area.

Touching on farming activities, Mr. Padi said farmers could plant drought resistant plants now, and wait till the actual rainy season to plant crops that required a lot more water such as maize.

The senior meteorologist said the extreme atmospheric heat currently pertaining in the country, was just a natural result of the present movement of the sun towards the equator.

“By the latter part of March, we will be along the equator.  The heat will, thus, progress into April.” Mr. Padi said the heat in the atmosphere would thus peak in April, “when the sun would be directly above us.”

He said occasional rainfall during the period would, however, cause periods of relief by reducing the heat from time to time.

Mr. Padi said with the dry season just ending, the ground was generally hard, which caused water to easily pile up instead of sinking.

He said this easily caused flooding, and made it very necessary for drains and gutters to be de-silted, to allow the free flow of water and in effect, prevent flooding.The senior meteorologist also hinted that the pre-rainy season showers could easily be accompanied by very strong winds, “as was the case about a fortnight ago in Kumasi.”

He urged the public to either strengthen or destroy weak structures, and avoid situations of such structures collapsing and causing either death or injury. Mr. Padi also advised that people should not seek shelter under trees when it got cloudy, because some of them could easily be uprooted by the strong winds.

 Southern Ghana has two rainy seasons, which are the major and minor rainy seasons, whilst Northern Ghana has a single and major rainy season. Both regions however experience the harmattan or dry season.