THE SOUTH African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued weather alerts for KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape for severe thunderstorms. There is also an alert for damaging winds in the Western Cape and the Northern Cape.

SAWS issued a Yellow Level 2 warning for “severe thunderstorms resulting in localised flooding and localised damage to settlements are expected in places over the south-western parts of KwaZulu-Natal and the extreme north-eastern parts of the Eastern Cape.

The weather service said scattered showers and thundershowers are expected over south-western KZN on Monday with some of the storms expected to become severe over the south-western parts. The severe thunderstorms are expected to be accompanied by heavy downpours increasing chances of flooding, hail, excessive lightning and strong winds.

This is expected to lead to:

Localised damage to infrastructure, settlements, vehicles and livestock.
Localised injuries and danger to life due to lightning.
Localised and short-term disruption to municipal and other essential services.
Localised flooding of susceptible roads, low-lying areas and bridges.

SAWS also issued a Yellow Level 1 warning for “damaging winds resulting in difficulty in navigation at sea is expected between Cape Point and Alexander Bay including the Cape Metropole, from Monday afternoon”.

The weather service said strong to near-gale force southerly to south-easterly winds (40-50km/h) reaching gale force (60-70km/h) in places between Cape Point and Alexander Bay including the Cape Metropole from Monday afternoon but only between Cape Point and Plettenberg Bay from Tuesday late morning (January 20-21) into the evening. Gusts of 70-80km/h can also be expected especially along the coastline.

This can lead to:

Damage to formal/informal settlements and some structural damage if possible over the Cape Metropole and surrounding areas.
Longer travel times are expected due to localised problems for high-sided vehicles going in and out of the Cape Metropole.
Risk of localised runaway fires.
Difficulty in navigation at sea and small vessels at risk of taking water and capsizing in the locality.
Localised disruption of small harbours and ports.

Additionally, SAWS said: “Extremely high fire danger conditions are expected over the south-eastern parts of the Northern Cape as well as over Matzikama and Bergrivier of the Western Cape.”

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