The country has since Monday been covered by an unusually thick fog reducing visibility for both motorists and pedestrians.
Some motorists, in a bid to caution other road users about their approach, put on their parking lights as they drove as late as 10pm in Accra.
The situation this year which surpasses previous ones in recent times is directing the thoughts of some Ghanaians who have followed the international discourse on climate change to the subject.
Climate change as a subject for national discourse is a far cry from what is obtaining in other countries in Europe and some parts of Asia.
So much dust is being deposited on objects including bedrooms of resident of some parts of the country and even beyond in the West African sub-region that more regular cleaning has become the order for some homes.
The Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMA) in a release on the subject states that this is the fourth outburst of the anomaly this week, having started on Monday; a situation which the agency adds will prevail till the weekend. “The atmosphere will remain very dry and hazy with drastic reduction in visibility values of less than 1km to a little above 3km will be observed,” the agency forecast.
“With the current dry and cool continental winds invading the country, and as well as the West African sub-region, relative humidity values will be less than 20% over northern Ghana, 20-40% over the middle sector and 25-55% over the coastal belt,” the agency added.
Forecasting further the agency indicated that night to early morning temperatures will be relatively cool over the northern half of the country with the afternoons becoming warm with hazy sunshine dominating. Fire monitoring charts and other meteorological parameters, the agency observes, can result in “a very high probability of fire outbreaks due to careless handling of open fires.”
Liquefied Petroleum Gas operators and the public have been especially advised to be mindful about how they handle inflammable materials.
By A.R. Gomda