"A powerful winter storm kicked-up from Antarctica has engulfed the South African city of Cape Town –among other locales– delivering anomalously-low temperatures, flooding rains and heavy snows.
The intense cold front made landfall on Sunday night, reports ewn.co.za, and brought along with it heavy downpours, frigid temperatures, rough sea conditions, and strong winds.
Authorities are busy monitoring areas prone to flooding, after the South African Weather Service (SAWS) issued a “level 5” warning for cold and rain.
Drivers in and around Cape Town have been urged to be extra cautious following numerous road accidents after the districts of Belleville and Woodstock were flooded.
While localized flooding has also been noted in multiple other areas, including in Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Philippi, and Lwandle.
The cold and wet weather is set to persist over the coming days.
Two additional polar fronts are predicted to hit the province before the end of the week.
Residents have been advised to call for help if needed, concludes the ewn.co.za article.
Predictably, the MSM is paying little attention to South Africa’s chill — cold-waves are usually classed as “weather” after all, whereas heat-waves are almost always portrayed as evidence of “catastrophic global warming”.
More predictably still, the fleeting mention SA’s cold weather does receive in the MSM is in relation to the virus.
“Cold weather and ‘zero understanding’ of virus behaviour is fuelling Covid-19 spread,” reads a Sunday Times headline dated June 29 ...
Eskom warns of power outages as first of three cold fronts hits Western Cape
The severe weather conditions are expected to lead to electrical faults across the Western Cape, Eskom –South African’s electricity utility– warned on Monday.
The cold front –the first of three forecast for the province this week– has “put the network at risk” and will “potentially leave customers with prolonged periods without electricity”, warned the power utility.
“Unfortunately, these conditions also affect the restoration efforts of technical teams out in the field.”
As reported by sowetanlive.co.za, SAWS is warning of a low pressure system shifting along the west coast that is bringing with it cold and rain to coastal regions as well as wind speeds of up to 100km/h for parts of the Northern Cape and Central Karoo.
Average wind speeds between 60km/h to 80km/h could be expected along the west coast.
Warnings were also issued for many other regions, with “power interruptions and localized infrastructure damage expected over the West Coast, Cape winelands,
Central Karoo, Namakwa district, Northern Cape, and the Sarah Baartman, Chris Hani, Joe Gqabi and Raymond Mhlaba districts of the Eastern Cape,” said the weather service."
