The new 2024-2025 flood season has begun and from now on OPIDIN offers regular bulletins until the water level in Mopti has reached its peak level. The information on water levels is updated weekly, and the predicted flood level can be followed via the flood forecast page. Recently a new gauge was constructed at the quai in Mopti, in time for the current flooding season.
The water level in Mopti reached already a level of 425 cm on the 1th of August and has increased to 478 cm on 5 August. At this time of the flooding season, these are very high levels not recorded since the very high floods in the 1950s and 1960s in the past century. Currently, the water level is 124 cm higher than last year at this time, and 53 cm higher than two years before. This would implicate, that 2024 would be a year with a very high flood as in 2020 and 2022 (when the peak flood level reached 670 and 675 cm in Mopti).
The water level in Mopti may have increased so much because of the high rainfall in the Upper Niger Basin during the last four months. Rainfall in the upper reaches of the Niger and Bani rivers in April and May were average, but increased significantly in July and August in particular in Guinea and southern Mali. It is still early August, so we are only halfway the rainy season and much can change depending on the rainfall in the Upper Niger River during the coming weeks. The rainfall forecast for the coming weeks is below average in the Upper Niger Basin, but not so in the Malian part were above average rainfall is forecasted. The flood prediction is still unsure and may vary depending on the amount of rainfall the coming weeks.
New gauge at the quai of Mopti, July 2024, photograph Wetlands International
