In which I describe the weather...

Weather in Ghana, especially here in the north, is full of extremes – heat, wind, rain – no half measures here!  The climate is harsh, or, as the locals would put it – the weather is a challenge!  We are now quite adjusted to the experience of permanently damp, not to mention sometimes positively wet, skin.  You know when you’ve had a long bath and the skin on your fingers is all wrinkly?  Well, ours is like that all the time…and it’s not because we are so old (I hope!)!

Yesterday, for instance, we were outside, happily teaching our small groups in school when suddenly the storm broke.  Unusually, there was no warning gale so we were treated to instant, vertically falling, pounding rain.  At this point you have already retreated into the classroom where you immediately realize that teaching is now impossible.  Hammering rain on a tin roof is deafening.  Add to that 60 pupils talking all at once…time to leave.  And indeed, all the teachers rapidly arrived in the head teacher’s tiny office, many happily tucking into an early (or late?) breakfast.  No-one stayed in the classrooms to supervise the pupils.  No contingency plan came into operation.  It was yet another wasted teaching opportunity (yes, I did say you can’t teach in these conditions but you can tell the class to work through the exercises in the text book…or whatever…if you have a plan!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the nights we have experienced one or two storms where, as the lightning passes overhead, sparks have shot out of the light sockets – quite a nerve-racking experience!  Fortunately no damage done unless you count frazzled nerves!  Another time we arrived home after a storm with a particularly strong wind only to find half of the house underwater.  Again no damage done (just a waterlogged toilet roll) – it’s a concrete floor – but endless amounts of scooping out water and mopping.

In October/November (nearing the end of the rainy season) we watched the storm clouds gathering force and rolling menacingly down the main street of Zebilla from east to west.  It was quite a spectacular sight.  As you watch the swirling grey mass gathering depth and force, a gale force wind warns you to get home fast.  So, with dust flying, along with many abandoned plastic bags, you forget your shopping and head for cover, knowing that in the next few minutes the deluge will begin.  Imagine the heaviest UK rain; huge droplets, like you are tipping a bucket.  Ghana rain is like that – well, at least initially.  It arrives with a bang but retreats with a whimper, gradually losing force but often taken a couple of hours.

On other occasions we have watched the lightning streaking non-stop across the evening sky for well over an hour.  I would liken it to the Northern Lights for spectacularness (is that a new word?!). There was little accompanying thunder, no rain and fortunately no mosquitos.

Today is extremely hot!  That should mean that the rain will come soon.  After a storm the temperature is cooler (well, if you can call 35/36 ° cooler!) for a while but there is a gradual build up of sun and heat over the next few days until…please rain soon!

So, the rainy season starts around May and ends around November, with the wettest months in July and August.  It doesn’t really mean that life is cooler though there are more peaks and troughs.  However, life is a little more exciting because if you want to stay dry you have to be a weather reader!  When the rain caught us at work on a Friday afternoon we were not impressed!  But when it means you can’t get to work – well, that’s a different story…and rain here is a bit like snow at home – normal service goes on hold!

From November to February Ghana experiences the Harmattan wind blowing in from the Sahara complete with accompanying sand and dust.  Lovely!  Temperatures remain high except that there were a very few nights where we felt that having a sheet on the bed in the early morning might have been helpful.  The air is hot and dry.  The wind is not always present; like the storms it keeps you guessing and will whip itself up into a frenzy within seconds when you are unprepared.  If you are inside you can watch the mini-tornados whirling around and once again bemoan the rubbish taking to the skies.  The best thing about it is that the puddles dry up and the mosquitos are put to rest. J

What’s left of the year is March and April – the hottest months – almost unremitting blue skies and sunshine.  Yuk!  Temperatures around the 40 ° mark with lows of maybe 34/36° at night if you’re lucky.  It’s not so windy or so dry but, oh dear, it is hot!

Ghanaians, like Brits, like to talk about the weather.  They get hot too, which is always re-assuring when you are trying to drink more than you’re sweating!  We have an electric fan  in the office (and ours is working now too J) and many have a fan at home.  Air conditioning is reserved for the computer rooms, the top officials and generally the posh hotels.  You learn to walk slowly; it takes a bit of learning because really you want to go quickly to get out of the heat but if you do go quickly you boil!  Now we understand the need to sit all afternoon under a shady mango tree.  But still, there are jobs to be done and life must go on.

                         The shade of a mango tree is very tempting!

The farming season is upon us.  After some early rain in April some industrious farmers in the outlying communities began to plough and plant only to be threatened by a mini-drought.  I think most seedlings survived but perhaps not all.  Here in the towns, most of the locals are just beginning to plough in the middle of June (why the townsfolk should be so much later is not obvious…maybe it’s smaller scale, less of a business, here).  I guess everyone wants something in place for July when the heaviest of the rain begins.  Crops are mainly varieties of millet, maize and rice.  However, there are large onion growing regions (that is, the regions are large, though perhaps the onions are too), tomatoes, watermelons, peppers (green and red hot), groundnuts, beans etc.  I imagine these need to be sown before the heavy rains too; I need to investigate this.


                                       A seasonal view outside our house

 

 

 

And so the cycle continues…we hope.  Ghanaians rely on the rains.  If the crops fail then many families go desperately hungry.  The millet and maize etc store well and keep families in food during the long dry periods.  The rains are welcome.  The rains are life-sustaining.  There is a lot of talk about climate change here.  So far it remains talk, the fluctuations are attributed to natural phenomena.  Let’s hope it stays that way.