2 recent #pictures on day 5 of the 2021 Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam #GERD filling.
1. Satellite image this morning.
2 Date unknown, posted on Twitter today.
Meanwhile it looks as if the #HOA rain is about to get heavier. Today's forecasts follow.
Today's big picture hasn't changed much.
TS #Elsa can still be seen bottom left, she will be crossing Cuba later today.
Bottom right we see storms over #Ethiopia and #Yemen.
In Europe the #EuropeBigWet continues with North Atlantic weather moving in from West.
This @NASA Modis satellite image series zooms in from...
1. The entire Nile 2. Ethiopia 3. #Abbay basin. Can you spot the #GERD? 4. Tigray.
@NASA Today's 10-Day Rainfall forecasts for North Africa from July 4th through July 15th.
[NOTE: The KMA model data feed to @weathermodels_
seems to be down today.]
48-hour rainfall forecasts (today and tomorrow from the same four models: the Euro @ECMWF, U.S. @NOAA's GFS, Canada's CMC and models.
In all forecasts short and long range we now see rainfall pushing deep into northern areas in the Sahel.
Here we see a six hour animation of a satellite view of today's cloud activity over Ethiopia. [Src. @zoom_earth]
@zoom_earth Zooming out we can see the Arabian Sea and the source of the Monsoon winds as well as storm activity building up in Yemen.
As always the final rainfall forecasts are long range July 4th forecasts. Today we have 16-day (GFS) and 360hour (EPS ensemble model) and 16-day (GEFS ensemble model) accumulated rainfall forecasts for the Middle East..
الله أعلم
Finally in today's thread I will return to a matter raised yesterday. I.E. that a significant increase in monsoon activity over the Indian Ocean next week may lead to significant step up in rainfall over the #HOA this time next week.
In yesterday's thread I looked only at the GFS model looking forward at the Indian monsoon. The three images here are from the ECMWF model and they confirm the sequence. By July 14th the area of monsoon level atmosphere will have reached Ethiopia.
These animations which show July 11th to 14th show the arrival of the tropical level moisture in Ethiopia
Above we have the European @ECMWF model forecast. And here the CMC (Canadian) model.
And this model, the Australian ACG model also shows the same thing, which makes four major weather models all in agreement that a significant change will take place next weekend which could lead to a step-up in the intensity of rainfall.
We shall see what that impact looks like next week. But it stands to reason that in order for this flow profile for the Nile to be met, significantly more rain will need to fall.
Over 24hrs 25-60mms rain has fallen over all three Nile tributaries with the heaviest falling over the #Abbay in Ethiopia's highlands which feeds the #GERD. Here we see an image of storms starting up this morning.
I jumped the gun calling the beginning of #GERD filling on1 July - as the big rainy season began.
Official news of filling came yesterday in the form of an objection to the filling from Egypt after being notified by #Ethiopia that it is underway.
#GERD filling is expected to be less than 13.5 Billion Cubic Meters as time ran out to raise the dam to the height needed to hold this amount of water.
When the filling is completed spilling over the center of the dam will resume as you can see in this image below from 2020.
Green = 1 inch of rain over the #Abo & #Abbay basins.
This satellite data based plots shows estimated rainfall over the last three days of rainfall across North Africa. #DesertRain is falling across all the Sahel. In Sudan and Chad nearly an inch in the past three days.
This one shows a close up over the horn of Africa which shows the rainfall during days 3-6 of the #GERD filling period over the #Abbay basin - where 3 to 5 inches of rain has fallen.
The convective storms over Ethiopia and Sudanese Nile Basins tonight is remarkably intense. Bringing massive amounts of rain across a huge area, including the #Abbay /#BlueNile basin, on the 4th day of #GERD filling.
In this wider view you can see the full size of today's rain areas which extended deep into Sudan later in the afternoon.
These two images are at sunset the sizes of the two large convective areas, the eastern one extends well north into Eritrea and covers Tigray and the entire #Abbay Basin. The first image provides an idea of size. Each storm area is larger than the UK and Ireland.
Hurricane #Elsa this morning shortly before daybreak. The track of this increasingly dangerous looking cyclone has moved east and north with a projected path over Cuba now.
Here is the latest official warnings and advice. Elsa is moving very fast and is currently forecast to exit the U.S. after making landfall in 5 days time. However these events are inherently unpredictable. See .... nhc.noaa.gov
This animation shows water vapour over the Caribbean over the next five days. The center of Elsa can be seen in purple.
Here we zoom out a little, the source of the #Abbay/#BlueNile Lake Tana takes pride of place. You can see the #GERD lake in the bottom left hand corner.
These images are from the @NASA Modis Worldview service. Also below a picture of the #GERD from back in January.
Here's today's big picture as ever of the great Sahara Desert. You can see today's #ArabianStorms starting up bottom right, and top left a new rain front coming into Western Europe where the 2021 #EuropeBigWet continues to bring rain and unseasonably mild temperatures.
Somewhat unsually for @Monbiot this article is both harsh shallow and foolish. The story of the Tigray War, its origins, and potential consequences is not comprehensively covered in his usual manner, as a Monbiot fan I am disappointed. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
This companion piece of reporting also from yesterday is better. But it too fails to understand the complexity of a nation which was under seige from Trump, who was in league with Egypt in the lead up to the war in its dispute over the #GERD as well as dealing with Covid.
The coverage from pontificating western media over the this Ethiopian catastrophe rages as an echo chamber of ill-informed reckons.
There are reasons this is happening. More complex and more interesting than the collective ill-informed group-think currently being reported.