The mercury is expected to hit the high thirties in some areas. Picture: iStock
South Africans will have to bear the excruciating heatwave a little longer with the scorching weather expected to last until at least Wednesday.
Regional weather forecaster Gauteng Weather shared the details on X.
The heatwave, which started last week, spiked the irritability factor with people doing whatever they could to keep cool.
While Gauteng Weather said cooler weather is expected after Wednesday, temperatures remain high.
The mercury is expected to hit the high thirties in some areas. Temperatures in Johannesburg are forecast to start off at a minimum of 19°C on Monday and reach a high of 33°C.
Pretoria is also expected to be hot with scorching temperatures starting with a minimum of 19°C and reaching a high of 35°C on Monday.
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The heatwave also drove a spike in demand for electricity on Friday with Eskom pushing up load shedding to stage 6.
This was about 1 500MW above Thursday’s levels, according to Eskom group executive for generation Bheki Nxumalo.
Nxumalo said an increased demand for air conditioning and fans could be blamed for the stage 6 load shedding.
“The increase in demand can be attributed to the heatwave we are experiencing and we suspect it is coming from the air conditioning,” he said.
Eskom has since dropped the levels of load shedding.
City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi urged residents to exercise extreme caution during the scorching weather.
“EMS would like to encourage residents to continue to exercise caution when conducting daily activities. Stay hydrated, drink lots of water, avoid direct sunlight, especially between 11h00 and 15h00, and take regular breaks when walking directly into the sunlight.
“Exposure to these extremely hot temperatures can cause heat exhaustion and heat cramps which might lead to heat stroke,” said Mulaudzi .
ALSO READ: Here’s how often the light will now be off under City Power’s load shedding schedule
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