Heavy rain and severe thunderstorms to hit parts of Mpumalanga on Saturday

While it promises to be a wet weekend for parts of the country, with light rain and thundershowers expected in several provinces, those in the highveld of Mpumalanga should expect more intense weather patterns.

The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued a yellow level 2 warning for severe thunderstorms, with heavy rain, potential for hail and strong damaging winds over the highveld of Mpumalanga on Saturday.

The weather service has also warned residents in the central and eastern parts of Northern Cape and the Mangaung district municipality of the Free State, to watch out for extremely high fire danger conditions.

Conditions are such that the FDI index is above 75, warned the weather service.

“Under these conditions, fires may develop and spread rapidly,” it said.

Saturday’s weather forecast

Gauteng: Partly cloudy and warm with isolated showers and thundershowers. The expected UVB sunburn index: Low.

Mpumalanga: Cloudy in the east with morning fog patches along the southern escarpment otherwise partly cloudy and warm to hot with isolated showers and thundershowers but scattered in the east. It will be very hot to extremely hot in the lowveld.

Limpopo: Partly cloudy and hot to very hot with isolated showers and thundershowers except in the north-east.

North West: Partly cloudy and warm to hot with isolated showers and thundershowers.

Free State: Partly cloudy, windy and warm with isolated showers and thundershowers in the east, becoming fine in the extreme south in the afternoon.

Northern Cape: Morning mist over the south and the south-western parts, otherwise fine and cool to warm, but partly-cloudy in the north with light morning showers in places in the extreme north-east. The wind along the coast will be fresh to strong southerly to south-easterly, becoming south-westerly from the afternoon.

Western Cape: Cloudy at first with light rain and isolated showers over the south-western parts, becoming fine and cool from the afternoon, but remaining partly cloudy with light rain along the south coast. It will be warm along the West Coast and over the Breede Valley.

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The wind along the coast will be moderate to fresh west to north-westerly at first, but south to south westerly north of Cape Columbine, spreading to the east by the afternoon. The expected UVB sunburn index: Extreme.

Western half of the Eastern Cape: Cloudy and cool with isolated showers and rain in the morning, becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon. The wind along the coast will be moderate to fresh south-westerly.

Eastern half of the Eastern Cape: Cloudy and cool with isolated showers and thundershowers but scattered along the Wild Coast. The wind along the coast will be moderate to fresh south-westerly.

KwaZulu-Natal: Morning fog in places over the interior, otherwise partly cloudy to cloudy and warm to hot but cool in the south-east. Scattered showers and thundershowers are expected but isolated in the west.

The wind along the coast will be moderate northerly to north-easterly in the extreme north, otherwise moderate to fresh southerly to south-westerly. The expected UVB sunburn index: Low.