Durban — The South African Weather Service (Saws) is expecting thunderstorm activity over the eastern parts of the country during the extra-long Christmas weekend.
In a statement, Saws said that central and eastern parts of the country can expect thundershowers during this coming Christmas long weekend.
These parts are the eastern parts of the Northern Cape, North West, Free State, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces.
“Some of these thundershowers will become severe containing all or some of the following hazards: heavy downpours, strong damaging winds, hail, and excessive lightning. These may result in flooding of roads and settlements, damage to infrastructure, as well as dangerous driving conditions.
“All necessary precautionary actions are hereby advised to mitigate against these expected hazards,” Saws said.
The service said that an upper air trough (extension of the low-pressure system) will develop to the west of the country on Friday, December 23, 2022, moving eastwards and is expected to intensify from Saturday (December 24, 2022).
“The system will influence weather patterns over most central and eastern parts of the country during the next five days, resulting in isolated to scattered showers and thundershowers,” Saws said.
It said that on Saturday, isolated thundershowers are expected over the Eastern Cape, southern Free State and eastern interior of the Northern Cape province but scattered in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday. Some isolated showers and rain are expected along the south-west coast of the Western Cape on Saturday due to a weak cold front passing by.
⚠️YELLOW LEVEL 2 WARNING: Thunderstorms: KwaZulu-Natal: 24/12/2022: 14:00 till 22:00 pic.twitter.com/1FCuVp87FM
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) December 24, 2022
“On Sunday, December 25, 2022, the upper trough will move over the central interior and across the country, still dominating isolated showers and thundershowers for both Sunday and Monday over the North West, Gauteng, Free State, eastern parts of the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga but scattered over KwaZulu-Natal,” Saws said.
“Isolated showers and rain are still possible on Sunday along the southern parts of the Eastern Cape as well as the south coast of the Western Cape but partial clearance from the west is expected on Monday, December 26, 2022. It will remain hot and dry over the Northern Cape from Sunday until Tuesday, December 27, 2022, and those conditions are expected to reach the central interior of the country from Monday into Tuesday.
“Still on Tuesday, isolated showers and thundershowers are expected over KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga and parts of Limpopo province as well as eastern and northern parts of the North West. Showers and rain are expected along the east coast of the Eastern Cape,” Saws continued.
“The band of isolated showers and thundershowers are expected to come back over the central and eastern areas of the country on both Wednesday, December 28, 2022, and that will include the following provinces, North West, Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, eastern parts of the Eastern Cape as well as southern Limpopo and those conditions are also expected to persist on Thursday, December 29, 2022.”
Saws said that according to Impact Based Warnings there is a yellow Level 2 warning for today (Saturday) - severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, hails and heavy downpours leading to localised flooding of susceptible formal/informal settlements or roads, low-lying areas and bridges, localised damage to property and livelihood and minor vehicle accidents are expected over south-eastern parts of KwaZulu-Natal and the extreme eastern parts of the Eastern Cape.
🥳🥳🥳: WEATHER FORECAST FOR THE CHRISTMAS WEEKEND 🤶🧑🎄🎅We wish you a merry and safe Christmas 🧑🎄☦️🇨🇽🎄🇨🇽🎄. pic.twitter.com/Xalzi0VqrL
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) December 24, 2022
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