Some relief from torrential rain

The downpours in Gauteng this week will ease today in some parts of the province, says the SA Weather Service.

For the Western Cape it is sun and more sun.

The torrential rains experienced in Gauteng since Monday morning will ease today in some parts of the province, but return tomorrow, according to the South African Weather Service.

Forecaster Wayne Venter told The Citizen yesterday people could still expect a 30% chance of showers in places in the province today, with a 60% for the extreme northern areas.

“However, on Thursday, we will see the rain returning and indications are that the chances will range between 60% and 80%,” he said.

Daytime temperatures are also expected to remain in the cool category, with Pretoria peaking at highs of only 20ºC and 19º for Johannesburg and Vereeniging.

Venter said most of the rain today would be mainly confined to the northern parts of the country, which includes Limpopo and Mpumalanga, the northeastern parts of the Free State, the eastern parts of North West, the Eastern Cape as well as the whole of KwaZulu-Natal.

Tomorrow, rain will be experienced mainly along the central and eastern half of the country.

There was unrelenting rain throughout Monday night.

There was a slight respite from the downpours in the early hours of yesterday, but it started raining again from about 4am and by 8.30am it was still teeming in most parts of Gauteng.

Traffic was badly affected yesterday morning as there were reports of a number of accidents and, in some places, trees had fallen on to roads.

Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said a number of accidents were reported yesterday morning.

Several roads in Johannesburg and Pretoria were flooded as it continued to rain.

The heavy downpours have been welcomed by many people, considering that 54mm of rain was recorded in the crucial Vaal Dam catchment area over a 24hour period.

But there is some bad news in other parts of the country: dry conditions are expected to persist in the Western Cape, with some showers expected in parts of the Northern Cape.

On Thursday, we will see the rain returning.

Picture: Alaister Russell COLOUR-CODED. A woman takes cover under an umbrella yesterday in the Johannesburg CBD. Wet weather has been forecast in Johannesburg for the rest of the week.