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I see that they are having record amounts or rain throughout most of Namibia. Just wondering how this will relate to this years hunting season. I could only think of positives in respect to herd health. What are others thoughts on this years hunting season?
NUCNSHOOT, As you mentioned Namibia has experienced record rainfall since the beginning of its' rainy season which started last October. The rain really started to pick up beginning of this year and is still very present at this time with the rainy season ending by the end of the month of April. The well above average rain has benefited Namibia in many ways however as you can read from the below article Zambezi highest in 40 years, it has also affected many people as well as some industries.
The rain surely is very positive in respect to the game in many ways, from the availability of water reserve through waterholes and dams but also from the underground water supply reserves that have certainly replenished and which also contribute to helping sustain the game in some parts of Namibia during certain time on the year and during droughts. The rain surely brings every year a new vegetation growth but in well above average rainfalls combined with the right amount of sun like this year it can bring exceptional growth that can help sustain the game in some areas for a couple of years even in time of droughts. With rain comes the food supply, and this year is abundant.
The hunting season in Namibia, which already started February 1st, is looking great and the rain has benefited the game tremendously. When it comes to hunting using a spot and stalk, or tracking method, the amount of vegetation may be an advantage as the bush is more dense and the grass is taller allowing for more cover. It may also be a disadvantage for certain species harder to spot in the dense grass such as Warthogs...
If the rain keeps on at a similar pace until the end of April, it may delay a bit the good time to start the bowhunting season if bowhunting at waterholes from blinds. As long as there are a fair amount of water puddles in the bush the game traffic at waterholes can be drastically diminished...
The game should be looking very healthy throughout the winter time and until the next wet season commence, all very positive...
Wet February rewrites rainfall record books
by Werner Menges
FEBRUARY 2009 will go down in the record books as the wettest February in close to 50 years – at least in Windhoek and in parts of northern Namibia.
A rainfall summary released by the Meteorological Service of Namibia on Tuesday confirmed what amateur weather watchers’ rain-gauge readings have been suggesting since February turned into a month of cloudy skies, heavy showers, and very few sunny days. In both Windhoek and Ondangwa, last month was the wettest February since 1961 at least, the Met Service’s figures show.
With the far northeastern and southeastern parts of the country the exceptions, the amount of rain that the rest of Namibia received during February was markedly above the normal rainfall total for that month. Except for the southeastern parts of the country and Tsumkwe in the northeast, Namibia’s rainy season has been substantially wetter than normal, the figures also confirm.
At the Windhoek Met Office, 284 millimetres of rain was recorded in February, which had 25 days of rain. In an average February, a total of 91,4 mm of rain is measured there. According to the Met Service’s figures, this year’s February total of 284 mm is the highest measured at this weather station since at least 1961. The previous highest total amount of rain recorded at the Windhoek Met Office during February was 207,6 mm, which was measured in 1987.
At Ondangwa, where 100,6 mm of rain is measured in an average February, a new record of 378,4 mm was recorded last month, when that town had 24 rainy days. Considering rainfall records going back to 1961, this also surpasses that town’s previous record for February, which was a total of 315,8 mm dating back to 1971.
In a normal rainy season, a total of 250 mm of rain would have fallen at the Windhoek Met Office from October to the end of February. This rainy season, 511 mm was measured at the Windhoek Met Office in that period.
At Ondangwa, 322,8 mm of rain would be expected to be recorded during an average rainy season from October to the end of February. At 740,3 mm, Ondangwa has already received more than double that amount of rainfall up to the end of February this rainy season.
The situation is the same at Okaukuejo in Etosha National Park. In an average February, 91,6 mm of rain is recorded at Okaukuejo. Last month, more than three times that total – 275,7 mm – was recorded there. Up to the end of February, Okaukuejo received 531,5 mm of rain this rainy season. In an average year, this figure would have been 255,8 mm.
Grootfontein would expect to receive 115 mm of rain in an average February. This year, a total of 224,8 mm was recorded at the town in February. That is still well below the February record of 366 mm that was recorded there in 1974, but Grootfontein remains on course to have an above average rainy season, with a season total of 638,5 mm recorded to the end of February, compared to 401,7 mm normally measured at the town by that point of the rainy season.
February has been exceptionally wet at Khorixas as well, where more than five times the normal rainfall total of 45,7 mm for that month was recorded this year. Khorixas received 268,8 mm of rain last month. In an average rainy season, it can expect to receive a total of 130,2 mm from October to the end of February. Khorixas’s rainfall total for the corresponding period this rainy season is 370,8 mm.
In the southern half of Namibia, the average amount of rainfall measured at Rehoboth during February is 64,2 mm. This year, Rehoboth received almost three times that much – 189,5 mm – during February. In a normal rainy season, 154,7 mm of rain would be recorded at Rehoboth between October and the end of February. This season, that figure is up to 344,6 mm.
The rains started petering out further south in Namibia, though. At Keetmanshoop, which received an above normal 84,9 mm last month, compared to 44,3 mm in an average February, the seasonal rainfall total stood at 111,4 mm at the end of February. In an average year, Keetmanshoop would receive 96,6 mm of rain from October to the end of February.
In the southeast of the country, at Karasburg, an above-average 56,2 mm of rain that was recorded during February – compared to a normal February total of 36,5 mm – has helped bring the rainfall total for the season to the end of February to 56,4 mm. That, though, is still below the normal amount of 80,9 mm received at Karasburg by that stage of the rainy season.
In the northeast of the country last month’s rainfall totals have also been below average. At Katima Mulilo, 86,6 mm was recorded last month, compared to a total of 140,3 mm that is normally received there during February. With copious rains having fallen in the Caprivi Region at the start of the rainy season, though, Katima Mulilo’s rainfall total so far this season stood at 735,2 mm at the end of February. In a normal year, that figure would be 548,1 mm.
Source: The Namibian
Zambezi highest in 40 years
by Brigitte Weidlich
THE Zambezi River rose by three centimetres yesterday and reached an alarming height of 7,82 metres at Katima Mulilo in the afternoon – the second highest level in 40 years.
President Hifikepunye Pohamba again flew to the Caprivi Region yesterday to assess the flood damage after an earlier visit a few weeks ago to the region.
The Zambezi River stood at 7,76m at Katima Mulilo on Sunday and rise by six centimetres within 24 hours.
According to hydrologist Guido van Langenhove in the Ministry of Agriculture, the highest record for the Zambezi was 8,16m in 1969.
“Reports from Zambia are that water levels there are also the highest on record and that the flood will still be increasing, although at least rainfall would be less in the coming days,” Van Langenhove told The Namibian yesterday.
The Namibia Red Cross Society (NCRS), which has appealed for donations to help flood victims in northern Namibia, could not give more details about the humanitarian situation in the Caprivi Region.
“We cannot give details, only the Governor, Leonard Mwilima, can do that,” Polly Helmut of the NCRS office at Katima Mulilo told The Namibian yesterday afternoon.
Governor Mwilima accompanied President Pohamba on a helicopter flight over the flood-stricken Caprivi Region yesterday.
The delegation made a stop at Schuckmannsburg, about 60 kilometres east of Katima Mulilo as the crow flies, where the Head of State spoke to people who had earlier been relocated there and temporarily sheltered in tents.
“Of the six constituencies in Caprivi, Kabbe is affected the worst with about 90 per cent affected by the floods,” Mwilima told The Namibian yesterday afternoon.
“In the Sibinda, Linyanti and Kongola constituencies, most crop fields are damaged by the floodwaters, but the situation is not (yet) life-threatening. The high levels of the Zambezi River are of very great concern to us, especially the rising water measurements over the past 24 hours,” Mwilima added.
“In the Katima Mulilo urban constituency we have houses submerged by the floodwaters and some families have been accommodated in the town hall. In the Katima Mulilo rural constituency about 50 per cent of the area has been affected.”
Asked about flood relief, Mwilima said Government’s Emergency Management Unit (EMU) had received some tents and food supplies since the floods started several weeks ago.
“Government resources are limited but the help received so far has been of great help,” he said.
The Governor concurred with predictions by the Agriculture Ministry’s hydrology department that Lake Liambezi in the Caprivi Region would fill up soon.
“The Chobe River which flows into the Zambezi River is already flowing westwards as the Zambezi River carries so much water and pushes the Chobe waters into a western direction. We expect that waters from the Zambezi River could reach lake Liambezi soon,” Mwilima said.
Caprivi River Lodge, which is situated five kilometres east of Katima Mulilo, has cancelled bookings for tourists because several rooms are under water.
“We must use mukolos (traditional dugout canoes) and kayaks for one kilometre to reach a dry parking place close to the tar road if we want to get to town,” an employee of the lodge told The Namibian yesterday.
The owner of Mukusi Cabins east of Rundu recently closed the lodge because of the floods. President Pohamba is expected in the Kavango Region today, where the Okavango River had risen to 8.62m by Sunday, the second highest since records started in the 1940s. The highest ever reached was 8.91m in 1969.
Source: The Namibian
I'd also add that there will be a marked increase in the mosquito population, hence a higher risk of malaria.
How is the water situation now Jerome? Any current news.
BRICKBURN, the northern part of Namibia saw it's last rain about two weeks ago which is tremendously late as the rainy season is usually finished for the most part in March. April usually sees a couple of days of rain. Namibia transitioned from the late rains directly into winter which normally doesn't usually start until a few weeks later in June. The vegetation has already started to transition from green to yellow and last week frost came in briefly...
I just returned from a hunt in Caprivi and the rivers are indeed still quite high. There was a frost at my friends farm east of Grootfontein on Thursday and he said it has killed the grass and leaves. This should help with visibility and make game easier to spot.Also the water is drying up quickly and bow hunting at waterhole blinds should be good by mid to late June.
Yeah!!!! Glad those leaves are coming off and I can handle the frost. we just had a warning two weeks ago at home. :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by AfricaHunting.com
On the 7th we had snow in the South !!! - interior very cold lately.
Check out this website for weather updates and predictions
Namibia Weather Network
Thank you, I will look at that.
Apparently I should make sure I have those long sleeve shirts and wool gloves along for those mornings. -6C to +27C interesting swings in temperature.
Those flying varmints (mosquitos) will be dead for sure. :)
These photos of snow in the southwestern part of Namibia were taken recently by Johnny Schickerling, PH and owner of a Horse back hunting Safari in Namibia called Agarob Hunting Safaris, www.agarobsafaris.com.
For real...
http://www.africahunting.com/hunting...e=16806&size=1
http://www.africahunting.com/hunting...e=16807&size=1
http://www.africahunting.com/hunting...e=16808&size=1
http://www.africahunting.com/hunting...e=16809&size=1
http://www.africahunting.com/hunting...e=16810&size=1
http://www.africahunting.com/hunting...e=16811&size=1
No doubt its happened before but it cant be common. Looks cool though. So much for global warming! We have had a record cool April, May and now June here in the NW of the U.S.
Awesome, it will be just like hunting at home in November or early October. :)
I just thought of something.... maybe I should bring the snow camo, that would be a first!! Gemsbok and Kudu in Snow camo would go well with the picture of the Mule Deer.
Wow...looking at those pics of snow in Namibia blows my mind