Durban - For those watching the weather, the South African Weather Service (SAWS) has said extreme weather conditions are likely to continue to affect the central and eastern regions of the country for most of Wednesday and Thursday.
There is also a chance of localised flooding in parts of KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday.
SAWS said the extreme weather is expected to be predominantly in the form of severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall which may lead to localised flooding.
Warning:31/10/2018 14h00 TO:31/10/2018 21h00 Severe Thunderstorms- are observed over parts of uThukela, Amajuba, Zululand and Umzinyathi moving eastwards with strong winds, hail and heavy downpours.
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) October 31, 2018
There is cold frontal air in circulation over KwaZulu-Natal is in the process of encroaching into the provinces of the Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
This is resulting in the development of isolated to scattered showers and thundershowers as the cooler, moist air in the east interacts with hotter air over the interior of the country. Moreover, the presence of a broad upper air trough is also expected to promote the development of longer-lived storms
Widespread storms are expected over the northern highlands of KwaZulu-Natal as well as the escarpment region of Mpumalanga, where orographic uplift is likely to result in further instability promoting more vigorous, sustained thunderstorm development.
This conflict of air mass, according to SAWS, is expected to be most pronounced along the escarpment regions of Limpopo and Mpumalanga today with storms being expected later in the day.
Such severe storms are likely to be associated with one or more of large damaging hail, strong wind damage or localised flooding.
There is currently an extremely dangerous risk of veld fires over central Limpopo province today, due to the persistently hot conditions over this region.
Rainfall and thundershowers are likely to persist on Thursday.
According to SAWS, rainfall is expected to occur over North West as well as all of Limpopo. Conditions likely to support severe weather are also expected to affect a larger area with severe thunderstorms likely to be associated with one or more of large damaging hail, strong wind damage or localised flooding expected to affect Gauteng, north-east Free State, KwaZulu-Natal highlands, the highveld and escarpment of Mpumalanga as well as the southern extremities of Limpopo (Waterberg region).
There is also a high probability of heavy rains which could lead to localised flooding over the northern half of KwaZulu-Natal, extreme north-eastern Free State, most of Mpumalanga as well as neighbouring Swaziland.