THE sun may have shone on the Western Cape for Heritage Day, but we're now well into a cold front, and the wet, chilly weather is here to stay.
Forecaster Surprise Mhlongo, from the Cape Town office of the SA Weather Service, said yesterday's rain and plunging temperatures were thanks to a typical cold front making its way across the Western Cape.
“We currently have a cold front that has already made landfall over the south-west parts of the province.
"We had good rain over the Cape metropole, West Coast and parts of the Cape Winelands on Friday,” Mhlongo said.
“We issued an alert of possible localised flooding for the early hours of yesterday.”
For today, the cold front is expected to continue moving across the province, leaving sporadic showers in its wake as well as strong winds and low temperatures.
“We've issued an alert for strong north-westerly to westerly winds of 50-60km/h over the central districts, as well as the Karoo,” Mhlongo said.
“Temperatures are expected to drop to a maximum of 15 degrees for most parts of the province today, and there will be on-and-off showers behind that front until midnight hours.”
Mhlongo said the cold weather wasn't unseasonal or unusual, despite it being well into springtime.
“It's just a normal cold front system for this season in the Western Cape.”
The weather will be milder from Sunday into the start of next week, Mhlongo said.
While yesterday's rain left many low-lying areas waterlogged and facing possible flooding overnight, Cape Town's dams have been enjoying some of their highest levels since the drought. The latest dam levels recorded on Wednesday showed the province's dams were already at 98.3% of their capacity – compared to 37.5% in 2017.