Cape Town - The SA Weather Service has forecast a clear, dry but very windy December 25 for the Mother City, which will experience a south-easterly wind at speeds of between 19 and 28km/h.
SAWS said other than the strong winds, December 25 will be a humid day with 65 to 70% humidity, maximum temperatures for Cape Town not expected to get past 21°C, sunrise at 5.34am and sunset at 7.58pm.
Those heading to the beach in Cape Town on Boxing Day can expect a less windy day with a south-easter blowing at between 9 and 19km/h most of the day, clear skies and a forecast temperature of 20°C.
Meanwhile, Eskom said that as long as there are no unforeseen incidents with its power supply in the run-up to December 25, there is likely to be minimal load shedding for South Africans on Christmas Day.
When asked what the country could expect with regard to load shedding over Christmas, Eskom said it was expecting the load to drop due to a large portion of industry closing down.
In other words, there should not be too much pressure on the power system on the day, and this had been factored into their planning and higher maintenance cycle for this time of year.
An Eskom statement in response to questions from the “Argus” said: “Load shedding depends on the actual status of the network at any given time to balance supply and demand.
“It therefore does not automatically mean less or lower stages of load shedding over the festive period.”
The power utility on Wednesday announced stage 4 load shedding until further notice, having moved up to stage 6 on Monday night after the breakdown of six generating units.
Eskom’s “load shedding checklist” broadcast on their Twitter account suggests among other things that food be prepared beforehand in case of power outages.
If a recent independent survey conducted by Pick n Pay with more than 1 000 local consumers is anything to go by, the most popular main Christmas meal selected by shoppers were braai items.
This indicates that consumers are opting for an outdoor festive braai instead of an indoor Christmas roast.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za