Joburg residents warned to brace for ‘very hot’ weather this week

Regional weather forecaster Gauteng Weather has warned Johannesburg and Pretoria residents to brace themselves for a “hot to very hot” week ahead with Wednesday expected to be the hottest.

Gauteng Weather shared the details of the scorching weather on social media platform X on Sunday.

The mercury is expected to hit the high thirties in some areas.

Temperatures

Temperatures in Johannesburg are forecast to start off at a minimum of 15°C becoming very hot and reaching a high of 34°C on Wednesday.

Pretoria is also expected to be hot with scorching temperatures starting with a minimum of 17°C becoming very hot and reaching a high of 36°C on Wednesday.

⚠️ALERT: HOT TO VERY HOT WEEK!

Monday⛅️15|31°C☂️30%
Tuesday⛅️17|31°C☂️10%
Wednesday⛅️17|34°C☂️10%
Thursday⛅️16|32°C☂️58%
Friday⛅️16|31°C☂️29%#JHBWeather

Monday⛅️17|33°C☂️29%
Tuesday⛅️19|33°C☂️10%
Wednesday⛅️19|36°C☂️10%
Thursday⛅️18|33°C☂️59%
Friday⛅️18|33°C☂️28%#PTAWeather

— Gauteng Weather (@tWeatherSA) March 3, 2024

ALSO READ: Eskom suspends loadshedding until 4pm on Monday

Warnings

Meanwhile, the South African Weather Service (Saws) has also issued a number of warnings for the rest of the country.

Saws issued a yellow level 4 warning for severe thunderstorms resulting in flooding and large amounts of small hail are expected over the Cape Winelands and Overberg Districts (Western Cape).

A yellow level 2 warning was also issued for severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, heavy downpours and hail resulting in localised damage to property are expected in places over the south-eastern parts of Northern Cape, south-western parts of Free State as well as eastern and central parts of the Eastern Cape Province.

Saws also warned of extremely high fire danger conditions expected over the Ramotshere Moiloa Municipality in North West and Matjhabeng Municipality in the Free State.

Load shedding

Meanwhile, the hot weather is also likely to put pressure on the electricity grid as people use various appliances, including aircons, to keep cool.

Due to some generating units returning to service since Friday and the sufficient emergency reserves, Eskom said load shedding will remain suspended until 4pm on Monday.

Thereafter, stage 2 load shedding will resume from 4pm until 5am on Tuesday, when the power cuts will be suspended again from 5am until 4pm.

Eskom said the alternating pattern of suspending load shedding will be repeated daily until further notice.

ALSO READ: Weather update: Damaging winds in Western Cape and heatwave in Eastern Cape