Cold, wet weather hits Cape Town
2011-04-26 15:48
Cape Town - The City of Cape Town's Disaster Risk Management Centre on Tuesday alerted residents to further adverse weather conditions forecast this week.
A series of cold fronts were affecting weather conditions over the Western and Northern Cape Provinces during the period April 25 to 27, it said in a statement.
The first of the three cold fronts passed through the Western and Northern Cape Provinces on Sunday, resulting in cooler surface conditions.
A second front passed on Monday dropping temperatures further at the surface.
A third cold front swept through the south-western Cape on Monday night, and was likely to spread to the interior during the course of Tuesday.
Weather warnings
Very cold conditions were expected over the high-ground areas until Wednesday, the centre said.
The SA Weather Service had also issued a number of weather warnings and watches of cold fronts and gale force wind conditions across the Western Cape.
These included heavy swells of four to six metres expected to spread to Alexander Bay on Tuesday.
High seas with wave heights reaching seven metres were likely in places south of Cape Columbine.
Very rough seas with wave heights in excess of four to six metres were expected on Tuesday and on Wednesday.
Very cold conditions would set in over the western high-ground of the Western Cape on Tuesday, spreading to the southern high-ground of the Northern Cape later and persisting until Wednesday.
A gale force northwest/westerly wind of 35 knots was expected south of Cape Agulhas on Tuesday, spreading to the offshore areas of the southern coast by evening.
On high alert
Snowfalls were expected over the south western mountains of the Western Cape on Tuesday, spreading to the southern mountains overnight into Wednesday morning.
As part of the city's comprehensive disaster plan for storms and flooding, the Disaster Risk Management Centre, and city and provincial social development departments were collaborating with a network of NGOs to assist people affected by the colder weather - particularly homeless people - by sourcing emergency accommodation at shelters as far as possible, and providing emergency shelters, hot meals, clothing and blankets.
The disaster response team were on high-alert and maintaining close contact with the SA Weather Service.
In the event of a life or property threatening emergency, the public were requested to dial 107 from a land-line or 021-480-7700 from a cellphone.
- SAPA
