Weather gods acting real strange

THIS has been a strange summer in many respects. No, not the Zuma-Gordhan affair, although that in itself has been strange enough. Let’s steer clear of politics here; the Chiel is supposed to be light and frothy, not heavy and morose. There’s enough of that about already.

So why strange? Well, for starters it’s been hotter than usual for March with 30°C plus a daily occurrence inland where people are being roasted. Down here on the coast my own instincts tell me it’s been warm and sometimes hot, with humidity quite high at times. That’s by no means scientific, however, just a little bit of the way I’m feeling. Others may have different ideas and I’m willing to hear them out if they feel they have something to say about it.

March was very strange. It just kept on being like any other February, hotter and more humid than usual. March usually starts that way for the first couple of weeks, but this year those couple of weeks have continued on into a third week, then a fourth and even April as I write, the trend continues.

It’s been very strange – here we go, that word again – because by now we should be feeling the effects of cooler nights, and that isn’t happening. Mrs Chiel and I are still sleeping with just a sheet over us and some nights that is also kicked off. Yes, there have been a couple when we pulled up a thick blanket, but a night or two later it was packed away again.

The sea temperature hasn’t been all that high over summer either. In fact I would say that I could count on one hand the number of swims I’ve had in the sea this year. Most summers I’m in and out of the Nahoon Beach surf and diving into the river mouth dozens of times which is when I dream of Mauritius because it can be just like that there – golden sands, crystal clear blue seas, perfect waves, warm days and I just want to get in it. crazy weather pattern that’s been around for a while now, that we believed was dissipating. Now we hear from news and weather broadcasts that there could well be a new phase starting in August/September this year. Oh, no … not another, and so close behind the last one.

We’re coming to the end of our rainy season and the Western Cape is struggling to exist on dangerously low levels of water in dams; their rain is just about to arrive, and now that too could be blocked by a second El Niño which would be a disaster.

At least we in the Buffalo City and Amatola catchment areas are still able to fall back on our smaller storage dams with Rooikrantz and Laing full to capacity, and Wriggleswade is almost there too. Bridle Drift is hovering around the 50% mark and Nahoon is just under 60%. Our neighbours in Nelson Mandela Bay are not faring as well.

Anyway, here’s the latest rain table for Chiselhurst: