Rain to clear over the long weekend, but windy conditions are brewing

Weather forecasters expect some of the heavy downpours experienced across South Africa this week to clear up over the long weekend but warn more wet and windy conditions are brewing.

Associate professor in meteorology at the University of Pretoria Liesl Dyson said the recent conditions were due to tropical moisture moving over the country.

“In the past week or so, a tropical weather system called an Africane was situated over southern Angola and Mozambique,” she said.

Dyson said an Africane was a large-scale, hurricane-like low that occurred over the southern subcontinent of Africa and supplied ample moisture for rainfall in South Africa. She also said that in the past few days, a cold front had passed over the southern parts of the country.

“The combination of the two systems caused the heavy rainfall,” she said.

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But South African Weather Service forecaster Tokelo Chiloane said temperatures in Gauteng were expected to rise to the mid-20s this weekend. She said the warm conditions would last until Sunday followed by a significant cooling into Monday.

“Light winds are forecast for the weekend making the conditions perfect to spend [time] outside,” she said.

This week the South African Weather Service issued several yellow storm warnings for parts of Limpopo, KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng.

Tshwane Emergency Management Service spokesperson Charles Mabaso said no flood incidents had been reported in the metro as of yesterday.

And meteorologist at Vox Weather Annette Botha said no weather warnings were issued for Gauteng and the surrounding area for the coming weekend.