Satellite-based drought analysis in the Zambezi River Basin: Was the 2019 drought the most extreme in several decades as locally perceived?

The study area is the river basin upstream of Kariba dam located in Zambezi River at border Zambia and Zimbabwe. During dry season 2019 Sub-Saharan Africa, extremely low water levels occurred Zambezi. According to news media, locals perceived this drought as worst several decades. We analyzed Basin determine whether it indeed was longest, most intense, severe drought, terms precipitation, total storage reservoir level observations over recent Data analysis indicates that had lowest basin-averaged annual rainfall, local rainfall deficit north basin, since 1995. However, more 2002, both basin-wide locally south basin. 2004, central part available data did not cover entire for 2019, its final duration severity remain unknown. Therefore, depends on characteristic, hydrological variable, location within extreme