Cool conditions with a chance of some soft showers is the forecast for Saturday when the Sharks and Blue Bulls’ Currie Cup clash takes place at Loftus Versveld in Pretoria, a SA Weather Service spokesperson said on Friday.
Obviously the same would apply for the showdown at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park showdoen between Kaiser Chiefs and Ajax Cape Town.
Evert Scholtz said the showers were part of a tropical system and would be soft and warm rather than the Highveld’s typical electric storms.
”The temperature range is about right for the time of year, but there is a good chance of exceptionally warm conditions over the northern half of the country until January when it should return to normal. The rest of the country can probably expect normal temperatures this summer,” he said.
Scholtz said he would not use the word ”drought” to describe the current weather patterns over South Africa, even though parts of the Free State, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga had had hardly any rain.
”The Easter rains in the area were below par and there’s no doubt we haven’t had enough rain yet. The probaility is good for near normal rains this year in the summer rainfall area but we need an above normal amount to make up the deficit and the chance of that is only about 20%,” he said
The recent cold snap was exceptional for October — it was late and unusually cold.
What about El Nino?
”We can’t blame El Nino or La Nina because the sea surface temperatures are normal and the last El Nino disappeared in May,” Scoltz said.
”We at the weather bureau sometimes wish we could make the weather but all we can do is try to forecast it — maybe we should be talking to Queen Modjadji, the Rain Queen.” – Sapa