Chilly weather in Nairobi to persist

The Kenya Meteorological Department has warned Nairobi residents to brace themselves for cool and cloudy conditions with occasional drizzles or light rains for the next four days.

This comes after Nairobi experienced a heavy downpour on Wednesday evening that nearly disrupted events at the ongoing World Under-18 athletics championship at Kasarani stadium.

Speaking to Nation.co.ke Kenya Meteorological Department deputy director Samuel Mwangi said that the rain experienced on Wednesday evening was in the forecast.

The weather department, in its latest seven-day regional forecast released on Monday show that Nairobi area was expected to experience cool and cloudy conditions with occasional drizzles or light rains and not the heavy rains experienced.

The forecast showed that sunny intervals would be experienced in the morning hours making way for showers in several places in the afternoon with temperatures hovering between 9 and 28 degrees Celsius.

“We may not see heavy rains until October and the rains which will be experienced might not change much,” said the deputy director.

He warned that occasional prolonged hours of overcast skies (cloudy conditions) resulting to cold and chilly conditions should be expected with a few days expected to turn out to be extremely cold with temperatures falling below 18 degrees Celsius in some areas.

As a matter of immediate concern for residents would be the warning that cases of respiratory diseases like asthma, pneumonia and common colds (flu) were expected to be on the increase due to the expected cool/cold conditions.

The forecast also warned that fog formation leading to poor visibility might also pose dangers to motorists and pedestrians along the Nairobi-Naivasha road, especially along the Kikuyu-Kinungi stretch with the aviation industry in the capital on the checklist as landing at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) may occasionally be made impossible by thick fog and associated very poor visibility leading to diversion of aircrafts to other airports.