Southern Africa has just received one of its starkest seasonal warnings in years, and it arrives with unusual specificity. The Southern Africa Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF-33), meeting in Swakopmund, Namibia in late August 2026, concluded that a strong El Niño already established in the tropical Pacific is expected to intensify further through the latter part of the year, bringing below-normal rainfall to much of Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and parts of South Africa during the critical January–March 2027 window, alongside above-average temperatures across nearly the entire region.

Southern Africa Braces: United Nations aid officials have put Southern Africa on alert for a rapidly intensifying El Niño that is forecast to reach

South Africa is heading into a potentially hotter and drier summer, with SAWS warning that an exceptionally strong El Niño could trigger severe heatwaves, below-normal rainfall…