Cold, wet weekend ahead warns SA Weather Service

If you’ve been saving something for a rainy day, now may be the time to use it – as experts have warned that rain is going to be here for a while.

But the heavy rain may signal problems for farmers with regard to the planting and harvesting seasons.

The South African Weather Service has issued an orange level 6 warning of disruptive rain for the eastern parts of North West, Gauteng, the western Highveld of Mpumalanga, the southwestern Bushveld of Limpopo and the eastern Free State.

The Democratic Alliance spokesperson for agriculture in Gauteng, Ina Cilliers, said the heavy rain could be a problem for farmers who started harvesting. “Some farmers, especially sunflower farmers, may already be harvesting. It is a problem when the lands are so wet, to get in, and also to get stuck due to the wet conditions,” she said.

But, said Cilliers, the rain will help the animals through the winter and contribute to the next season’s harvest.

The chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), Wandile Sihlobo, said the months of April and October were critical periods in the seasonal cycle of South Africa’s agriculture.

“These months correspond with summer and winter crops’ planting and harvesting periods, respectively.

“In October, the winter crops are typically maturing and approaching the harvesting stages, while the summer crop regions usually commence planting around that time,” he said.

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Sihlobo said it was the opposite for April, which was typically marked by the planting of winter crops and the approach of the harvesting season for the country’s summer crops.

“These events make the weather an even more important consideration during this period. “The planting regions for winter crops would need increased moisture, whereas the harvesting period of summer crops and horticulture would require cooler and drier weather conditions,” he said.

Sihlobo said the current weather conditions were not optimal for harvesting summer crops and planting winter crops. “The ideal conditions would be average rainfall to dryness for the northeastern regions of the country, and slightly above-normal rain in the southwest.”

Sihlobo said the current weather forecast does not so much spell disaster for farming as a need to plan properly. “The soil moisture in the winter crop growing areas of South Africa is at better levels following higher rainfall in the past season. “Better soil moisture in provinces such as Free State, Limpopo and Northern Cape could help boost winter crop plantings, specifically for wheat,” he said.

Forecaster at Vox Weather Annette Botha said the weather system responsible for the rain was known as a tropical temperate trough. This was was one of South Africa’s most prolific rainfall producers. “This type of scenario plays out when there is a tropical low pressure to the north of the country, usually over Botswana or Namibia, and a cold front passing, or a low pressure to the south and east of our coast,” she said.

Botha said a region of lower pressure then connected these two systems, allowing for a steady flow of deep, tropical moisture to pass over the country which caused heavy downpours and persistent rain for days at a time.

SA Weather Service forecaster Lulama Pheme said the heavy downpours would clear up by this afternoon. “A wet weekend is ahead with more rain forecast later this week going into the weekend,” Pheme said.