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More wet weather is expected this week in Gauteng after a cut-off low brought relief to the province following a heatwave last week.
Last week, the first rain for spring fell after a severe thunderstorm hit parts of Gauteng and surrounding provinces.
TLU SA chair Bennie van Zyl said farmers in the interior parts of the country were grateful for the rain that started falling in the regions while others were still patiently waiting for it.
Van Zyl said they were hoping for rain in the areas affected by recent veld fires to get the grass-growing process going again and provide feed for the cattle.
“We were now at the start of a new planting season, especially after the rains. The optimum time to plant is between 10 October and 15 November,” he said.
Van Zyk said constant and stable rain was needed to get the plant and production process going.
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City of Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said Sunday’s severe thunderstorms caused great damage across most parts of the city and led to power supply interruptions.
“The city’s technicians have been dispatched to various regions to attend to outages. The storm uprooted trees and, in some cases, caused tree branches to fall on the road or on overhead power lines, causing power trips which resulted in prolonged blackouts,” he said.
Mashigo said there was a massive restoration backlog due to the size of the network and the number of outages experienced following the storm.
“The resultant backlog is exacerbated by the need to prioritise the safety of our technicians, who are not allowed to work on the network in wet and rainy conditions,” he said.
South African Weather Service meteorologist Amukelani Mkhari said they issued a yellow level 2 severe thunderstorm weather warning for today for Gauteng.
A yellow level 2 warning signals severe storms with heavy downpours, leading to localised flooding of susceptible roads, low-lying areas and bridges. Large amounts of small hail that may result in localised damage to vehicles, houses and structures is also expected.
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Localised damage to informal settlements due to strong, damaging wind are expected over the eastern parts of North West and the Free State, Gauteng, the Mpumalanga highveld and extreme northeast of KwaZulu-Natal.
“The likelihood of the storm started to increase due to a cutoff low and we are expecting it to intensify over the northeastern parts of the country,” she said.
Mkhari said it was difficult to forecast severe weather further head this week, but there could be severe storms in the next day or two.
“A lot can happen within a day,” she said.
The service warned that heavy rain and flooding were expected over parts of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal until tomorrow, due to the cut-off low-pressure system.
“Cut-off low-pressure systems are notorious for resulting in severe weather during spring, including heavy rain that can lead to flooding, as well as intense thunderstorms accompanied by hail and damaging winds,” she said.
NOW READ: More thunderstorms expected tomorrow
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