Seasonal rains have started on time in the central and eastern parts of the Sahel belt of countries, beginning late April or May in southern Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and the extreme south-west of Niger, the FAO said.
FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) on food and agriculture said on 12 June in its first seasonal crop and weather situation report that rains had also started in the extreme southeast of Senegal.
However, it said, seasonably dry conditions prevailed in the rest of Senegal, Cape Verde, The Gambia and Mauritania. This, it said, reflected the normal pattern in the Sahel, “except for Niger where the onset of the rains is somewhat delayed”.
Satellite images for the first 10 days of June showed a decrease in the rains in Burkina Faso and Niger, GIEWS said, but a significant northward movement of cloud coverage indicated the progression of rains over the centre of Mali, Niger and Chad.
[Full report available on:
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/faoinfo/economic/giews/english/esahel/sah001e/sah
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