Scoop Images: Mayday Rain In Ethiopia

Saturday, 29 April 2000, 9:25 am
Article: Alastair Thompson

As protestors gather around the Western World in the cause of improving the lot of their fellow disadvantaged citizens of Planet Earth, clouds are gathering over the Horn of Africa promising deliverance of a different kind.

The above image is a supercomputer (the Air Resources Laboratory’s Ready model) generated forecast picture of the weather in Ethiopia for May Day 2000. The coloured lines represent millimetres of rain over a 12 hour period. The rain storm depicted goes off the colour scale.

The following links are to forecast pictures from both the short range and medium range forecast models. Both models are picking a downpour of more than 30mm of rain in less than 12 hours on May Day and at this short range while the forecasts can not be expected to be completely accurate they are a strong indication of what the heavens have in store for the starving millions in the deserts of the Horn of Africa.

READY SHORT RANGE FORECAST MODEL IMAGES

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/mayday2k/m1.2741.arlplot.gif
Mayday - short range forecast - closeup of the cloudburst

READY MEDIUM RANGE FORECAST MODEL IMAGES

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/mayday2k/m1.8173.arlplot
Mayday - medium range forecast

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/mayday2k/m1.3425.arlplot.gif
Mayday - medium range forecast - closeup
Rainfall shown in this image over a 12 hour period is off the colour scale at its center.

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Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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