Rare June Cloudbursts Hit Botswana

In Botswana, southern Africa, life-giving rain is a seasonal thing, and itsseason is during the Southern Hemisphere's summer. So by the time June comesaround, rain has inevitably fled to the equator and beyond as a long winterdrought begins to bite.This week, however, southern Africa's weather turned topsy-turvy asthunderstorms with cloudbursts befitting the month of January broke over thisdry to semi-dry land, much of which lies within the Kalahari Desert. ByWednesday, 5.3 inches of rain, washed over Orapa, well north of the nation'scapital of Gabarone.

In the nation as a whole, rainfall of at least 1 inch was widespread withhardest-hit spots getting about 8 inches of rain since the start of the week.

Amazingly, normal rainfall throughout Botswana ranges from virtually unknown toabout 0.25 of an inch.

Rare June rain also hit a few areas of northern South Africa, westernZimbabwe, western Zambia, eastern Namibia and southeastern Angola. Its triggerwas low pressure that broke away from the Southern jet stream to settle overthe Kalahari on Tuesday. The low was able to tap tropical moisture beforebeginning to leave the area on Wednesday.