The current drought season Uganda is experiencing is to continue until mid-March, an official from the Meteorology Department has warned.

Aloysius Kagoro told Xinhua by telephone on Monday that though the country is currently supposed to have a dry season, the weather this time round is out of the ordinary as temperatures are very high and last rainy season ended prematurely.

"Most parts of the country had higher than average temperatures and the rainfall was below normal," Kagoro said, noting that the areas that have been most hit are Lake Victoria basin and the semi- arid districts.

Kagoro said Entebbe temperature was 28.2 degrees Celsius as opposed to its average of 26.1 degrees Celsius and that this was responsible for the dry conditions.

He said this was the trend in the Lake Victoria basin and southwestern Uganda.

"This condition is likely to persist and occasional outbreaks of rainfall may be registered, but may not have an impact on the deficit," said Kagoro.

He noted that shorter rains than anticipated were to blame for the dry conditions experienced during last month.

He said the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, which is the rainfall generating belt, shifted southwards faster than it was anticipated, reducing the rainfall period in December from 10 to three days.

Kagoro was looking at the assessment of September to December 2005 and the weather forecast for January to March 2005.

Last week the government announced emergency measures to mitigate the impact of the drought season especially in the cattle corridors. Uganda's cattle corridor includes areas in southern, central and northeastern parts of the east African country.

Source: Xinhua