Weather update: Extreme heat expected in Western Cape

The South African Weather Service (Saws) has issued an alert for extreme heat in Western Cape on Friday, warning that these conditions will continue into the weekend.

Western Cape residents can expect the warm weather across most of the province from Thursday to Saturday.

Residents should expect very hot conditions from a predominately light northerly wind flow over the interior of the province.

Saws says temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius and above are likely to occur over the Cape Winelands, Central Karoo, Kannaland and Outshoorn municipalities.

“Furthermore, persistently high temperatures are expected into Friday in places over the Cape Metropole, Drakenstein, Stellenbosch municipalities and into Saturday over Knysna municipality,” Saws reports.

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Warning

Saws is warning people of the Western Cape to avoid prolonged exposure to the sun as far as possible.

The weather service also advices people to limit strenuous outdoor activities, and that they should find shade and to drink lots of water.

“Never leave kids or animals in the car unattended; also make sure that your animals have access to enough water,” it said.

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Weather advisory for other provinces

Gauteng: Cloudy and cool to warm with isolated showers and thundershowers. The expected UVB sunburn index: High

Mpumalanga: Partly cloudy and warm but hot in places in the Lowveld, with isolated afternoon showers and thundershowers on the Highveld, but scattered in the extreme south-east.

Limpopo: Partly cloudy and warm, but hot in places in the Lowveld, with isolated afternoon showers and thundershowers in places in the south.

North West Province: Partly cloudy and warm, with isolated showers and thundershowers.

Free State: Cloudy in the east with morning fog patches, otherwise partly cloudy and warm with isolated showers and thundershowers.

Northen Cape: Morning fog patches in places along the coast where it will be cool, otherwise fine and hot to very hot. It will become partly cloudy in the east by the afternoon.

The wind along the coast will be light to moderate south westerly becoming westerly to north westerly by the afternoon.