Cape Town - The South African Weather Service (Saws) has issued a yellow warning for the Western Cape saying that residents can expect disruptive rains and damaging winds.
Cape Town, Stellenbosch, and Drakenstein/Paarl, have been issued with yellow level 1 warning for disruptive rain.
Saws said localised flooding of informal settlements was possible, along with short term disruption to essential services such as electricity. Roads could be affected due to localised motor vehicle accidents that are common on wet slippery roads.
The weather service attributed the inclement weather to the cold front which is expected is to make landfall in the Western Cape on Friday and Saturday.
It said this would result in rainfall accumulation of 15 to 25mm.
High lying areas in the south-western parts of the province could receive 35 to 50mm of rain overnight on Friday into Saturday.
Saldanha, Table Bay, Cape Point, Overstrand/Hermanus, Swartland/Dassen Island and Cape Agulhas have been issued with a yellow level 2 warning for damaging winds.
Saws said localised disruption of small harbours (Cape Town harbour specifically) and ports for a short period of time was expected.
Difficulty in navigation at sea due to rough and choppy conditions can be expected, as well as small to large vessels and personal water crafts are at risk of taking on water and capsizing in a locality.
The weather service said the cold front with an associated upper-air weather system is expected over parts of the province and will propagate eastwards on Saturday morning.
It said this would result in gale force north-westerly winds (up to 80km/h) between Cape Columbine and Still Bay moderating by Saturday morning.
The winds are expected to bring about a combination of rough and choppy seas with wavelengths expected to reach 4 to 5m between Table Bay and Still Bay, subsiding by Saturday afternoon.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
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