Cape Town - Just a few days after flooding from an unusual storm caused havoc in numerous areas of the Western Cape, the Cape Town Weather Office has warned that severe thunderstorms resulting in flooding and large amounts of small hail would be experienced across the province over this long weekend.
These heavy downpours, strong and gusty winds, excessive lightning, and the possibility of large amounts of small hail may result in flash-flooding, disruptions to essential services, difficult and dangerous driving conditions, and could contribute to minor vehicle accidents and longer travel times on major roads.
The South African Weather Service (Saws) said these conditions come as the result of yet another cut-off low developing over the Northern and Western Cape, followed by the “black south-easter” circulation pattern (heavy rain), which dominated the western parts of the country over the past weekend and brought significant record-breaking rainfall and weather-related impacts.
The Saws issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of the Western Cape, including the City of Cape Town as a result.
The forecast includes severe thunderstorms resulting in flooding and large amounts of small hail and is in place from midnight tonight until midnight/early hours of Saturday morning, 17 December 2022. This also includes periods of strong winds.
The Disaster Risk Management Centre spokesperson Sonica Lategan said that potential impacts include flash flooding of roadways and at-risk informal settlements, downed trees and power lines.
“The Disaster Risk Management Centre and all other relevant City services and external partners are on standby to deal with any impacts from the forecast.”
Saws said new Western Cape rainfall records were reached after the past weekend’s downpours.
“Over a 48-hour period, Paarl measured 65.2mm and Wellington 59mm. Other rainfall figures worth mentioning include Jonkershoek (Stellenbosch region), where 76.4mm was measured (also over a 48-hour period), 54.8mm for Elgin Grabouw and 25.4mm for Cape Town International Airport (CTIA),” Saws said.
Premier Alan Winde said: “At a time when we are gearing up for the start of the festive season and are expecting heightened traffic volumes as people leave from and arrive in our province, we are putting additional standby resources in place to respond where needed. However, we appeal to all our road users to please exercise even greater caution when travelling.”
Winde said they were also concerned that with the heightened levels of load shedding and the possible severe weather, the situation could be further exacerbated.
Eskom alerted customers that infrastructure damage due to the recent storms across the Western Cape, as well as acts of cable theft and vandalism of infrastructure, had significantly contributed to the power supply challenges and it was currently experiencing a major backlog of faults in the Cape metropole and parts of the Western Cape.
“The areas worst affected are Khayelitsha, Delft, Bluedowns, Piketberg, Malmesbury, Vredendal and parts of the Overberg,” Eskom said.
Winde will be holding an extended cabinet meeting tomorrow to meet with municipalities across the province to assess plans and preparedness for this long weekend, but also the festive season as a whole.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za