Climate change can be simply described as the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere leading to shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.
The climate change phenomenon is currently being experienced in every part of the world and Ghana is not an exception.
Ghana is a country with only two types of weather seasons, being the dry and the wet season. The dry season is when the country experiences little or no rainfall from the period of October to May.
The wet season is when the country experiences rainfall from May to October with the heaviest of rains being experienced in June and July and the lighter rains experienced in September to October.
The 2023 wet season in Ghana has shown signs of climate change as there has been torrential rainfall throughout September to October, where light rains were expected in this period of time.
This has led to continuous flooding in some parts of the country and the spillage of the Akosombo hydroelectric dam that produces electricity for the country, displacing more than 30,000 people in the Volta Region in October 2023.
The dam spillage, displacing over 30,000 people is the first in the country’s history which is a result of the torrential rainfall in the period where minor rains were expected.
In an interview with a Ghana Meteorological Agency officer at the Takoradi office, in the Western Region of Ghana, Mr Williams Nyarko said the increase in the time duration of this season’s rains is a result of climate change.
He says the intensity of the rainfall has increased and has projected the rains to extend into the third week of November this year.
Mr Williams said human activities are to be blamed for this condition.
He said, “Currently the weather phenomenon we are experiencing is not all that abnormal from the normal situation we are used to during our minor rainy season, but the difference is that the intensity of the rainfall we are having now has increased and the duration span has also increased a bit.”
“Normally by the end of October, we are expected to exit the rainy season but because of some changes in the weather pattern, the minor rainy season is expected to extend into the third week of November, this is a result of climate change and human activities that have been happening in our environment.”
He said the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and industrialisation which he says are contributing to climate change by increasing the weather temperature.
Mr Gyimah said they are expecting a lot of rain in November 2023 and advised that the situation may result in flood hence people living in flood-prone areas must take precautions.
