In Namibia where the temporal variability and year to year variation of rainfall are high, the arithmetic mean (often called the normal) is not representative of the actual situation and can be misleading when declaring an area drought stricken. Consequently, much essentail information for agriculture and economic planning may be lost. In order to obtain some idea of drought or wet situations the concept of deciles was used and decile-range maps have been prepared for each season (October to April) from 1960/61 to 1989/90 rather than percentage of normal rainfall maps.