An unusual winter rainstorm
On 6 June 2016, just a few days after we arrived for our 2016 field season, Gobabeb experienced a massive and very strange winter rainstorm. Ordinarily, the central Namib gets most of its rainfall in the summer instead of the winter, but the fact that this was June wasn't the only thing weird about this rain event!
Shortly before 10pm, we were sitting inside chatting after dinner when we heard very loud wind. We immediately went outside and saw about 30 minutes of strong winds (hourly average 39 kph [24 mph]) with gusts up to 74 kph (46 mph) coming out of the WNW! Gobabeb is used to strong winds coming from the east in the winter (sometimes with extraordinary results) but this was crazy because rain and strong winds like this almost never come from the Atlantic Ocean and this seemed to just come out of nowhere. Standing outside of the station that evening, we could clearly smell the ocean just as if we were standing at the Walvis Bay Lagoon, even though we were 55 km (34 miles) inland.
We immediately went outside to check it out and brought some petri dishes with us out onto the porch (one of our research projects this summer was identifying what kinds of microorganisms live in fog, rain, and air so we were ready). The wind was so strong, it was kicking up dust and sand and blowing directly into our faces. The dust and sand were blowing so hard that we could feel static electricity shocks when we touched each other or pipes. Kathy held a petri dish out to collect some dust and after just about 5 minutes facing the wind, with the dish about 2 m (6 feet) above the ground, it was completely covered with a continuous layer of sand several millimeters thick (see video below).
The rain came after about half an hour of strong dusty and sandy winds and fell on and off over the next few hours. All in all, about 18 mm (0.75 inches) of rain fell over the next few hours (the annual average at Gobabeb is 25 mm [1 inch]), but interestingly, the humidity never got about 80%. I never saw any lightning. Both the Coastal Met and Kleinberg FogNet stations recorded about a third of the rain that Gobabeb received but had west winds that were just as strong.
Check here for data on the day of the event from the Gobabeb FogNet station and check out photos here from the Gobabeb Facebook page below.
Shortly before 10pm, we were sitting inside chatting after dinner when we heard very loud wind. We immediately went outside and saw about 30 minutes of strong winds (hourly average 39 kph [24 mph]) with gusts up to 74 kph (46 mph) coming out of the WNW! Gobabeb is used to strong winds coming from the east in the winter (sometimes with extraordinary results) but this was crazy because rain and strong winds like this almost never come from the Atlantic Ocean and this seemed to just come out of nowhere. Standing outside of the station that evening, we could clearly smell the ocean just as if we were standing at the Walvis Bay Lagoon, even though we were 55 km (34 miles) inland.
We immediately went outside to check it out and brought some petri dishes with us out onto the porch (one of our research projects this summer was identifying what kinds of microorganisms live in fog, rain, and air so we were ready). The wind was so strong, it was kicking up dust and sand and blowing directly into our faces. The dust and sand were blowing so hard that we could feel static electricity shocks when we touched each other or pipes. Kathy held a petri dish out to collect some dust and after just about 5 minutes facing the wind, with the dish about 2 m (6 feet) above the ground, it was completely covered with a continuous layer of sand several millimeters thick (see video below).
The rain came after about half an hour of strong dusty and sandy winds and fell on and off over the next few hours. All in all, about 18 mm (0.75 inches) of rain fell over the next few hours (the annual average at Gobabeb is 25 mm [1 inch]), but interestingly, the humidity never got about 80%. I never saw any lightning. Both the Coastal Met and Kleinberg FogNet stations recorded about a third of the rain that Gobabeb received but had west winds that were just as strong.
Check here for data on the day of the event from the Gobabeb FogNet station and check out photos here from the Gobabeb Facebook page below.
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The next day...
The following morning, we took a drive to town for a resupply and sampling trip and came across about half a dozen or so large pools of water on the road straight out of Gobabeb. The biggest one though, was just off of the C14/D2186 junction about 1 km from Vogelfederberg. It was in a small depression a few meters off the south side of the C14. The water came up about half way to my knees at one point. It stayed around for at least a day after the rain but I can't say how much longer after that (hours? days??) since we returned to the station via the River Road.
A few weeks later...
Six weeks after the rain, on 24 July 2016, I drove from Gobabeb to Windhoek via the Gamsberg Pass. Typically, many plant seeds in the Namib require about a rain event of about 11 mm in order for them to germinate, and they definitely got that from this rain. I've driven that road dozens of times since 2012 and this was an especially beautiful and verdant drive along the gravel plains. Unfortunately, my plant identification isn't yet as good as I'd like it to be so I'll have to post species names a bit later but if you recognize any plants in these photos, please shoot me an email!