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Cyclone is causing SA heat wave
By THEO EYBERS
JOHANNESBURG – The tropical cyclone which is causing major floods in Mozambique was also behind the sweltering heat wave in South Africa, a Weather Service spokesman said yesterday.
According to marine weather forecaster Tshepo Ngobeni the rotating cyclone is sucking in moist air, leaving SA with a high-pressure system, and therefore hot and dry conditions.
“The cyclone is moving in a north-westerly direction and should reach Beira by about 6pm today(THUR). It should reach Harare in Zimbabwe by about 6pm tomorrow(FRI). Ngobeni said.
“Usually the cyclone sucks in moist air while moving over the channel. That is why we are experiencing hot, dry conditions.”
It was expected the heat wave will lessen by Friday as the cyclone moves slowly over neighbouring countries, where heavy rains are expected.
“The path of the low-pressure system can however deviate, which makes it unpredictable.”
The Weather Service’s drought- monitoring report said many parts of SA had been “moderately to severely dry” in January “most noteworthy being the western half of North-West, central and eastern Free State, southern Gauteng, southern Limpopo, the extreme east of Mpumalanga, most of KwaZulu-Natal, the outh-western Cape and the western half of the Eastern Cape”.
Ngobeni said it was not possible to predict at this stage whether there would be more rain before winter.
The drought had also affected dam levels which have been dropping since December and notably in the last week or so. At the peak, the average dam levels in the country were almost 90% while now they had dropped to 85,2%. Last week this was 86,2%.
Last year this time, when large parts of the country still experienced serious drought, the levels were at 80,8%.
Today’s forecast maximum temperature for Pretoria is 35ºC, Johannesburg 33ºC and Kimberley 37º. -theoe@citizen.co.za
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