Wet, cold conditions forecast for W Cape

WITH a cold front that made landfall last night, Capetonians can expect a cold and wet start to the weekend as the front passes over the city.

The cold front brought rain of up to 80 percent and dropped temperatures to around 13°C.

The Cape Town weather office has issued a warning which takes effect today.

“Heavy rains and flooding are expected for the Cape Metropole, the Overberg and the western parts of the Cape Winelands from the afternoon today until tomorrow morning,” said Kate Turner, a forecaster at the Cape Town weather office.

She added that she does not think the Berg River Canoe Marathon will be affected by the weather.

The marathon started on Wednesday and ends tomorrow, but Turner said the weather for the West Coast will not be as bad and no special weather watches have been issued for that region.

“We regard rain of 50mm over a 24-hour period as severe and the rainfall for the West Coast is not as high, although there will be quite heavy rain.”

Before the start of themarathon organisers were making adjustments to the course due to the effects of the weather.

Organisers said that unless there was significant rainfall, the start of the race would be moved.

The race started on Wednesday at 10am and will finish at Bridgetown tomorrow.

Turner said there are no predictions for snowfall for the province over the weekend.

“There is quite a lot of snow falling in Lesotho and in the Drakensberg Mountains, but not in the Western Cape.”

The rest of the country will experience cold weather with the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal also being affected by heavy rains.

“There will be another cold front in the Cape Town area from Sunday and it should clear out by Monday,” Turner said.