Cold front will reach Free State, Gauteng and KZN this week

Service said the cold front that was expected to make landfall yesterday morning will spread to parts of Free State today and in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) on Wednesday following yesterday’s warning of scattered thundershowers. 

“A cold front was expected to make landfall over Cape Town early on Sunday causing windy, wet and cool weather,” the weather service tweeted on Saturday. 

According to forecaster Lulama Pheme, the cold front was moving eastward and was expected to affect central parts by tomorrow. “Starting from tomorrow it will affect the Free State and then over Tuesday it will affect Gauteng and parts of KZN where we expect 80% showers and thundershowers, especially in KZN and 50% over Gauteng,” he added. 

Pheme said the weather service yesterday warned of scattered showers and thundershowers in the western parts of the Western Cape, and also warned of disruptive rain and a lot of lightning along the coast of the eastern part of the Eastern Cape. Meanwhile, tropical cyclone Gombe was now over land and had weakened as it tracked further westwards. 

ALSO READ: Cyclone Gombe kills seven in Mozambique

It was expected to re-intensify yesterday, but Pheme said it was no longer a storm but a continental low. The storm, which made landfall over the coastal area of central Nampula province in the early hours of Friday, with maximum sustained winds up to 190km/h, moved over the northern parts of Madagascar and into the Mozambique Channel.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said in a tweet that  Gombe made landfall as an intense category three cyclone, predicting “devastating winds,  rainfall and storm surge”. “Winds have weakened but the heavy rains bring a threat of flooding in Mozambique and southern Malawi for several days,” the WMO said in a tweet. 

But the SA weather service said while in the channel, Gombe had strengthened reaching intense tropical cyclone strength, just before making landfall in northern Mozambique.

The service said Gombe was currently situated over the eastern parts of Nampula province in Mozambique and they were monitoring the situation very closely and providing updates when necessary. According to Mozambican  President  Filipe  Nyusi,  at least seven people had died due to houses and other infrastructure collapsing. 

Cyclone  Gombe follows tropical storm Ana which hit the country in January, and tropical depression Dumako which struck last month. Together, the previous storms reportedly affected more than  200 000 people in Nampula,  Zambezia and Tete provinces.