‘Dineo’ to hit Lim tomorrow
As Tropical Cyclone Dineo makes landfall in Mozambique tonight, several insurance companies have issued warnings of heavy rain and flooding in the province.
POLOKWANE – The South African Weather Service says Tropical Storm Dineo is likely to undergo a final surge of intensification and it will reach Tropical Cyclone status within the next six to 12 hours.
“As of 02h00 local time today, Dineo is still classified as a Severe Tropical Storm, positioned in the Mozambique Channel and in the last few hours, Dineo’s track has become more “westerly”, with recent movement being towards the west-south-west at 7 knots (about 14 km/hr),” the weather service said.
The cyclone is likely to reach the coast of Mozambique tonight and will result in windy and rainy weather across Limpopo and Mpumalanga from tomorrow.
Heavy rain can be expected over the following areas:
Limpopo:
Phalaborwa
Musina
Louis Trichardt
Tzaneen
Mokopane
Polokwane
Dineo (@ top right of image) is expectd 2make landfall on the southern Mozambique coast, north of Inhambane near Massinga early this evening pic.twitter.com/Ybq3QBGFqV
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 15, 2017
Windy conditions with strong wind gusts possible tomorrow Thursday (16 Feb 2017) in Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 15, 2017
The weather service says that the lower portion of the Limpopo River flows directly through the Mozambican region and it is most likely to be severely affected.
“This compounds the risk of flooding for communities which may possibly be displaced by this event,” it said.
Regarding direct, weather-related impacts for South Africa, the weather service says heavy rainfall may occur in places over the northern lowveld and adjacent escarpment regions of Limpopo on Thursday evening.
The greatest impact is suggested to be overnight, Thursday, and into the morning hours of Friday, 17 February, when heavy rain can be expected over the entire eastern half of Limpopo (including the Kruger National Park), where 100 to 200mm of rain could occur per day.
By early Friday morning the surface vortex of Dineo should begin dissipating in the region of Musina and Beit Bridge and by Saturday the remnants of Dineo are expected to drift into Botswana with showers expected to continue over Limpopo.
Rivers in the region will continue to flow quite strongly in the latter part of the weekend and into next week, as overland runoff takes some time to enter river systems.
Chief Forecaster, Kevin Rae says the South African Weather Service will continue to monitor any further developments relating to this weather system and will issue subsequent updates as required.
“The public is urged to regularly follow weather forecasts on television and radio,”he said.
