Weatherman: Heavy rains this month won’t contribute to spread of coronavirus
The Kenya Meteorological Department has warned that some parts of the country will receive heavy rainfall in the next seven days with April being the peak of the “rainy season” in the country.
However, the weatherman has said the heavy rains will not necessary mean low temperatures that can contribute to the spread of coronavirus in the country.
Kenya Meteorological Services deputy Director in charge of Climate Services, Dr David Gikungu, said there will be heavy rains in some parts of the country this month but it does not necessarily mean that temperatures will go down to the extreme.
“In April, the temperatures are not that low but will be lower compared to March and February because of the cloud cover as a result of the rains. In a normal season, there will be a lot of rainfall in April but temperatures do not necessarily go very low,” said Dr Gikungu.
According to the latest weather forecast, heavy rains of above 70 mm will be experienced in Narok, Lamu, Taita Taveta, Kitui, Tharaka, Murang’a, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Tana River, Garissa, Mombasa and Kwale Counties.
Nyamira, Bomet, Kisii, Kajiado, Nairobi, Machakos, Makueni, Meru, Kiambu, Embu and Kilifi Counties will experience moderate rains of between 20 and 70mm.
Low daily-mean temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius is expected over Central Kenya, central Rift Valley and some parts of Western Counties while parts of Nyeri, Meru, Nyandarua and Nakuru will experience low temperatures of below 8 degrees Celsius.
Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale and Kajiado have been declared as hotspots of the coronavirus in Kenya.
He, nonetheless, warned that the temperatures will fall as May, June and July with the humidity experienced creating a good breeding ground for viruses as it is known to favour the development of viruses leading to common flus and other related respiratory illnesses.
“When we go into the months of May the temperatures will start going down through to July and that is when a lot of people will now go down with flu and other related illness. So we advise them to keep warm and avoid cold places and foods,” he said.
Dr Gikungu explained that consistently viruses do well when it is very cold and that is where the link comes in between the patterns of the common cold and Covid-19. However, with Covid-19, a lot of information is not known so we can only compare it to other viruses that are known.
“When the coronavirus broke out people were saying it cannot survive in Africa because of the climatic conditions but now we know better. We have even seen people attacked with the virus having breathing difficulties even in hot places,” he stated.
The deputy director pointed out that people with predisposed weaknesses in their body systems get hard hit when temperatures go down citing those who suffer respiratory issues like asthma, pneumonia and other related conditions.
This is as a result compromises the natural response of the body to fight against any attack calling for them to take extra care compared to others.
“When the temperatures go down, asthmatic individuals suffer from breathing problems. This has also been observed to be a common factor with Covid-19 but the difference comes in because of the aspect of fever which is not common with asthmatic people,” said Dr Gikungu.