Weather guru speaks on a hot year ahead
KOMANI’s SABC1 Isixhosa weather reporter, Papama Tshangana-Dube, says 2017 was the warmest year on record and 2018 is expected to be even warmer.
Tshangana-Dube, who matriculated at Maria Louw High School and lives in Johannesburg said, “The recent hot weather in Komani was a result of a high-pressure system that invaded the interior causing subsiding air parcels that warmed up, adiabatically, as they descend to the earth’s surface. As a result of climate change, these winter phenomena occur late into summer causing unusually high temperatures. Berg winds make the situation even worse for the midlands and coastal areas as the warm air from the interior descends towards the coast.”
She said the trending hot temperatures affected ice landscapes and subsequently the sea level to rise, thereby altering the normal climate.
The current seasonal forecast reflected below-normal rainfall for the Eastern Cape including Komani, Tshangana-Dube said.
“Below-normal rainfall does not necessarily mean it will not rain. It just means that on average, there will be less rain than normally received.”
She said the El Nino phenomenon, which was initially the cause of the drought, had eased. “That is why some places are no longer experiencing drought. The worst is over, even though some places recover faster than others.”
According to her, the volatile weather conditions were not exclusive to South Africa, but were also affecting many parts of the world.
“Climate change does not affect one place but the whole earth, even though emissions can be mostly attributed to big economies like China and the United States of America. Climate change is the by-product of global warming and global warming is exacerbated by emissions of green-house gases.”
She said weather prediction began with data collection from the earth’s surface over the oceans and via the atmosphere through an automatic weather station.
“This data goes into forecasting models which give a forecast output. The forecast output is further manipulated and interpreted by weather forecasters for people as seen on TV or heard on radio. For monitoring the weather the SA Weather Service uses satellites and radar.”
Tshangana-Dube has a BA degree in media studies and an honours degree in communication science, specialising in media.
She started presenting the weather on TV in 2006 on the SABC Kids News and was hired to present for SABC 1 isiXhosa Prime Time news the following year.
She said weather presenting was her freelance job. “My main job is that of a news producer and journalist for SABC which I have been doing since 2008. I relish my job because it involves unearthing the truth, there is an adrenaline rush telling the stories of the seemingly voiceless and reaching out to marginalised groups. It gives me the opportunity to use my creative streak.”