Weekend weather: Warnings of heavy, disruptive downpours issued

The South Africa Weather service (Saws) has warned of disruptive rain and severe thunderstorms as well as heavy flooding throughout the weekend.

If you had an outdoor weekend planned, you might want to consider spending the next two days cosying up in your blankets, because these showers will be accompanied by cold weather conditions.

Rainfall and thundershowers are to be expected over the central and south-eastern parts of the country, which may damage informal infrastructure, cause localised flooding and possibly result in loss of life.

Provinces likely to be most affected are Gauteng, the North West, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

Saws has warned motorists to expect dangerous driving conditions as roads will be flooded.

“This wet spell will be accompanied by cold to very cold conditions over the southern and south-eastern interior of the country on Friday, spreading to the central and eastern interior by Saturday,” Saws’ statement read.

Even light snowfall can be expected over the eastern and southern parts of Lesotho and the surrounding Drakensberg mountains on Saturday evening, as well as on Sunday night.

Farmers are also warned of the floods which may lead to agricultural loss.

Speaking to eNCA on Saturday morning, Saws meteorologist Wayne Venter said severe weather conditions can be expected to phase out by Tuesday.

“We are expecting some flooding especially over the North West province and parts of the Free State, there’s likely minor impacts in Gauteng over the next few days, so we are keeping an eye on that,” Venter said.

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