Durban – The South African Weather Services (SAWS) is predicting a cold, wet and windy weekend for the Eastern Cape.
SAWS says a steepening upper-air trough, a surface trough and a ridging high pressure system is expected to bring in the inclement weather to the region.
“There will also be very cold conditions across the province from Sunday until Tuesday.
“Significant accumulations are expected to fall in places south of the escarpment from Sunday with the conditions expected to improve eastwards from Tuesday,” SAWS said.
This weather could result in floods at informal and formal dwellings, low lying areas and bridges as well as impact on municipal services.
SAWS says roads could be affected, resulting in traffic disruptions which could make driving difficult. The forecaster has issued a Yellow level 1 warning for strong damaging winds which might result in some travel routes being affected, and localised power and communications interruptions are expected over the central parts of the Northern Cape.
“Extremely high fire danger conditions are expected over the Beaufort West and Laingsburg Municipalities of the Western Cape, the Khai-Ma and Hantam Municipalities of the Northern Cape including eastern parts of the province, as well as the Sarah Baartman District Municipality, Chris Hani District Municipality and Walter Sisulu Local Municipality, spreading to Raymond Mhlaba Local Municiality, Amahlathi Local Municipality and Intsika Yethu Local Municipality of the Eastern Cape,” SAWS said.
Meanwhile, rainfall is expected over the drought-stricken Nelson Mandela Bay for the weekend.
While it may not be enough to ease the region’s dry season, weather experts are expecting around 30mm of rainfall between Plettenberg Bay and Port Edward.
“The impacts of the heavier rainfall in places will only be experienced from Sunday onwards and could include some very localised flooding but the official warning will be sent out closer to the time.
“The catchment area, Langkloof, should generally receive rainfall of less than 50mm over the four-day period.
“This is not enough to break the drought but will give us a bit of relief," said SAWS forecaster Garth Sampson.
Sampson added that over the interior there will be a sudden drop in temperature from Sunday to Monday.
“Maximum temperatures on Sunday will be around 20°C and then drop to around 10°C on Monday.
“This will effect small stock farmers,” he said.
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