Northern provinces will sweat this week

The South African Weather Service has issued a heatwave warning for the northern parts of the county with temperatures reaching highs of 37°C.

Weather forecaster Vanepia Phakula said the warning issued at the weekend was expected to continue through to this weekend, with Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga being affected.

Phakula said Pretoria would be around 37°C followed by Vereeniging with 34°C and Johannesburg with 33°C.

According to Phakula, the heatwave is caused by high pressure in the upper levels, which is expected in the northern parts of the country for the rest of the week.

ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring said they have not had to respond to any incidents caused by the heatwave so far, but added if temperatures remained this high, there would likely be heat-related incidents at the coast.

A recent report by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said that 2015 may be the warmest year ever recorded in Africa.

According to the CSIR this is partially due to climate change, and partially due to a massive El Nino event currently developing in the Pacific Ocean.

Temperatures over subtropical southern Africa have risen at more than twice the global rate over the last five decades.

“Moreover, further warming of between 4-6ºC over the subtropics and 3-5ºC over the tropics are projected by the end of the century under low mitigation, relative to the present-day climate,” said the CSIR.

“If the negotiations fail to ensure a high-mitigation future, we are likely to see rapidly rising surface temperature across the continent,” says Dr Francois Engelbrecht, CSIR principal researcher.

The African continent is particularly vulnerable to excessive temperature increases due to the continent’s dependence on subsistence farming.