SA’s rainfall lowest in decades

File picture: Ahmad Masood

File picture: Ahmad Masood

Published Jan 14, 2016

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Johannesburg - South Africa’s rainfall last year was the lowest since at least 1961, illustrating the severity of an El Nino weather pattern and the drought that’s devastating agricultural output.

Annual total rainfall was 403mm in 2015, compared to the long-term average of 618mm, the South African Weather Service said on Wednesday in an emailed statement.

Rainfall has been below the mean in each of the last four years.

The low rainfall, combined with record-high temperatures, decimated harvests in South Africa, with farmers expected to produce the smallest corn crop since 1995.

With dams only 55 percent full in the week ended January 11, compared with 82.5 percent in the same week last year according to the Department of Water and Sanitation, water restrictions have been imposed in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban.

BLOOMBERG

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