https://www.academia.edu...e_tropical_Indian_Ocean

Up until recently, extreme weather events in regions bordering Indian Ocean were attributed to happenings in Pacific / Atlantic. So much so that whenever there was extreme rainfall or drought and no corresponding El-Nino / La-Nina in the Pacific, this would be attributed solely to Çlimate Change'.

This was until this man, now Prof. Saji Hameed connected the dots and discovered the Indian Ocean Dipole Phenomenon in his PhD research back in '99. The misconception continued until very recently when scientists became more aware of his reserch work (His research was not done in a Western University hence the delay in global acknowledgement, maybe)

This phenomenon is behind the recent enhanced rainfall in East Africa and, unfortunately, ongoing Bush fires in Australia

Now, this is what a real PhD should be.

There is still more work to be done...especially to understand- why does the Indian Ocean Dipole Event take place roughly every 10 years? And will frequency change with Global warming?

Also learnt about it just the other day. It has now been proven and should now be taught as part of Geography curriculum..not sure how fast our curriculum developers are able to incorporate such new knowledge.

As for the occasional flooding in Malawi and neighboring countries, I think this is due to formation of Tropical storms/ cyclones (they never hit Kenya as we sit right on the equator within 4 degrees N/S, though it is now known we're very likely to have a dry period in our region whenever these storms hit south africa). These however form independent of the Dipole phenomenon.