More heavy rains today

LOCALISED urban flooding over western parts of the Garden Route, eastern parts of the Cape Winelands, and the Overberg District of the Western Cape was expected to continue today.

The South African Weather Service recently warned that parts of the country could expect stormy weather over the weekend until tomorrow.

A steep upper-air trough west of South Africa was expected to develop into a cut-off low system along the west coast yesterday, the weather service said.

This would result in heavy rainfall producing thunderstorms, which could result in localised flooding as well as potentially large amounts of small hail.

The affected provinces include the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Highveld and escarpment areas of Mpumalanga, spreading to the Northern Cape and Free State today as the system intensifies.

Possible impacts from these expected conditions include road flooding that could result in travel disruptions, and damage to infrastructure, as well as drought relief in places.

The cut-off low system is expected to move south along the south-west coast, with scattered showers and thundershowers persisting over the central, southern and south-eastern parts of the country, and possible heavy downpours over the southern half of the Free State, the eastern part of the Northern Cape, the northern part of the Eastern Cape and the south-western parts of the Western Cape.

The system is expected to weaken and move south of the country tomorrow, with a significant reduction in rainfall.

Updated information is available at www.weathersa.co.za as well as via the South African Weather Service Twitter account @SAWeatherService.