Rain likely to disrupt Proteas, Sri Lanka ODI – SA Weather Service

The first half of the ODI match between the Proteas and Sri Lanka at the St Georges cricket stadium on Saturday is likely to be disrupted by rainfall, the South African Weather Services said on Friday.

Speaking to Saturday Citizen, forecaster Madimetja Thema said the rain will be as a result of a cut-of-low pressure system which was on Friday affecting the southern parts of the country.

“We are still expecting isolated to scattered showers and thundershowers in Mosselbay but more intensity will be in areas such as St Georges and Port Alfred on Saturday,” he said.

In Gauteng, the heavy downpours that were experienced since Thursday, are expected to start moderating from Saturday.

“The tropical trough system which brought the rain is expected to still be felt in the northern parts of Gauteng which includes Pretoria and surrounding areas, as well as in Limpopo an Mpumalanga.

“Elsewhere in KwaZulu Natal, North West and the Free State, residents can only expected isolated showers,” Thema said.

Temperatures in Gauteng are expected to gradually start warming up from Saturday.

On Friday maximums in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Vereeniging and Vereening ranged between 20 and 23 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile spokesperson for the Johannesburg metro police Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the downpours had caused serious traffic jams.

“We want to again encourage motorists to exercise extra caution, especially when driving during the rain,” he said.

His counterpart from the Johannesburg emergency services, Robert Mulaudzi said usually during the summer rainfall season, emergency personnel get very busy in attending to incidents of flash floods and road accidents.

He said they will continue to monitor all the low lying areas in informal settlements.

“We want to urge residents living in low lying areas to move to higher ground as soon as they see the water levels rising and motorists should also stay clear of flooded roads,” Mulaudzi appealed.

Some of the low lying areas include Alexandra, Kya Sands, Orange Farm, Lakeside and Klipsruit.

Roads which are prone to flooding include New Canada and the M2 double decker.

The much needed rainfall comes at a time when several municipalities in the country still have water restrictions in place which among other prevent residents from making use of hosepipes to wash their cars, paving areas as well as watering their gardens between 6am and 6pm.

Most parts of the country were also declared disaster drought areas amid the drought last year.

The drought which also saw the El Nino weather system bringing a series of heatwaves last year, also saw the country’s dam levels dropping with the Vaal dam which supplies water mainly to Gauteng dipping to alarming low levels of 25%.

Authorities then embarked on a replenishing exercise of the dam in question, which meant releasing water from the storage reserve Sterkfontein dam.

Levels have since increase at various dams, but authorities says the levels would have to be at acceptable levels of above the 70% mark before water restrictions can be reviewed.

This week, the City of Cape Town approved harsher water restrictions after dam levels dropped to 40.4%.

The increased restrictions means that watering and irrigation may only take place on Tuesdays and Saturdays before 9am or after 6pm, for not more than one hour a day, and with the use of a bucket or watering can

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