A bike rider who runs from Model to Leicester Peak, with muffler tied over his nostrils, coughed and sneezed offensively as he wheezed through the bumpy road to the mountain rural district of Freetown.
A woman, who was dressed in Africana suit moved down OAU drive from Parliament on Friday at around 12:00, overlooked the west end of Freetown and soliloquized, “it seems as if the town is set on fire. I can’t even clearly see Pademba Road. The whole place is cloudy and hazy.”
When this reporter came closer to the woman and asked about her idea in relation to the weather she said in Krio, “I don’t know. I can’t either judge whether it’s an extension of the harmattan season or otherwise. The only thing is that it is also cold and dry, and makes people cough too much and sneeze all the time. It has been like this for days now.” She observed.
A Physician Specialist Dr. Patrick at Percival Street said the medical implication of the weather is that it gives rise to incidences of upper respiratory tract infection characterized by cold, cough, etc.
One of the most important aspects Dr. Coker noted was that it is not an infection which needs antibiotics. He said “usually symptomatic treatment would solve the problem,” adding that the situation is different from any other bacteria or viral infections. He maintained that “it is more atmospheric problem because of the harmattan and the high dust particle in the air which irritates the upper respiratory track system, and as a result causes sneezing, coughing and related effects.
The Acting Director of the Department of Meteorology Alpha Bockarie buttressed the fact that humans are highly susceptible to cold and cough on account of the hazy weather. In technical terms, he said that haze is caused by a suspended liquid and gaseous particles, as well as smoke in the atmosphere.
Going further he said this year we are yet in the northern winter which is dying down, but the high pressure belt which exists around the Azores, responsible for the weather derived from the mid latitude has intensified this year, pushing the inter-tropical convergence further south and collecting dust particles from the Sahara Desert, which is filtering down in tropical areas.
He said this situation greatly reduces visibility although it is a normal occurrence. But at times, he said the intensity goes far above normal which is the case of this. He noted that as a normal occurrence in historical records, it comes and goes mostly after four or five days.
The Director emphasized that during this period of the year visibility normally reduces but confessed that this situation is “extraordinary” and it is expected to pass after days.
A senior Lecturer at the Department of geography, Fourah Bay College Dr. Raynold Johnson said that the hazy condition is as a result of dry continental air-mass which is lacking in moisture and when it is blown, it is picking up the dust particles from the desert areas, and since it is blowing towards the equator, it is giving these dust particles in tropical areas. That is why, he said, “the atmosphere is dusty and white.”
He went on to say that the whitish nature of the atmosphere indicates that there is a lot of dust particles in the atmosphere. As a result, he said, “When the sun’s ray penetrates the earth and is reflected by these dust particles, it ultimately gives the whitish colour that we are seeing now.” And that because the dry wind is blowing form the Sahara Desert, when it comes over areas that have water bodies it tends to evaporate the water from the water bodies in areas that are covered by water, which results to the giving out of cold weather.
Questioned as to whether the weather condition in the country has any connection with the rough weather in Europe, Dr. Johnson said “basically, all weather systems are connected which we refer to in meteorology as ‘inter-telecommunications’ meaning what is happening in one side of the globe inadvertently affects the other side of the globe.” He said that although it can be a spinoff of the very cold weather in Europe, at the same time it is unique in this part of the tropical world because, he said, “we are aware of the fact that the harmattan wind is prevalent at this particular point in time.”
But he noted that even though it is still the same dry kind of wind we are experiencing as harmattan, “there is a bit of shift in its timing as opposed to its usual timing in mid-January and not early February as the case of this.”
However, as a word of caution, the Acting Director of Meteorology viewed that the condition is greatly as a result of human endeavours and activities inimical to nature. He said there is a lot of emission of carbon and related particles in the atmosphere which is consequently having adverse effect on the weather. He advised that one among the many solutions is “we find a way of dumping plastic materials other than burning them.”
By Poindexter Sama
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