After poor summer rainfall, a favourable rain-producing weather system is developing, the South African Weather Service (SAWS) said on Tuesday.
“This weather pattern is likely to be a major feature of the days to come, indeed even persisting to influence our weather up to and including the coming weekend,” the SAWS added.
“A large portion of the central and eastern interior of the country can expect significantly elevated chances of rainfall in the week ahead. The accumulative values of measured rainfall are likely to positively benefit those sectors of the community heavily reliant on water and rainfall for their economic well-being,” the organisation said.
For the first half of the summer season, many provinces including Limpopo, North West, Free State and Gauteng have received rainfall markedly below the long-term norm.
The key areas that could receive decent rain in the next week are the North West, Gauteng and Free State provinces, with heavy falls possible in places.
KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape could also received good rain, but to a slightly lesser extent.
Unfortunately, it appears as though the very dry Limpopo region could miss out on the bulk of the expected rainfall, the weather service said.
The reason for the improved rainfall is abundant and sustained movement of tropical moisture, from Angola and Zambia, southwards down to South Africa.
“Concurrent to this, a favourable upper-air pattern or upper-air trough is in place over the central interior and is modelled to be a dominant (and persistent) feature of this week’s circulation. This upper-air trough is likely to promote large-scale and widespread uplift of moisture-laden air; hence a fairly good chance of significant, widespread falls,” the SAWS said. — I-Net Bridge