Cape Town - Residents of the West Coast, in the Western Cape, and parts of the Northern Cape should brace themselves for extremely hot weather, the SA Weather Service said on Monday.
“Extremely high fire danger conditions are expected along the coast and adjacent interior of the Northern Cape province, West Coast district and south-western Winelands tomorrow 1/8Tuesday 3/8,” forecaster Lulama Pheme said.
He said conditions along the coast and the Northern Cape interior would be extremely uncomfortable on Monday, and that the heat would spread to the eastern interior of the Western Cape by Tuesday.
“Extremely hot conditions are expected over the West Coast district and in places over the western interior of the Northern Cape,” Pheme said.
He said there was an indication that Gauteng and North West could experience more heat in the days to come, but this was too early to confirm.
Elsa de Jager, climate information manager at the weather service, said although there had been high levels of heat in Gauteng in the past week, there had been hotter days in the past.
On Wednesday, the hottest place in the city was the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens, at 33.7 degrees Celsius. In 1925, a high of 35C was recorded in Joubert Park, Johannesburg.
Pretoria's hottest day on record was November 24, 1941, when the mercury reached 39.2C at Onderstepoort. On Wednesday, the temperature was 35.9C at the University of SA, in Pretoria.
Sapa