During the past 48 hours, numerous severe weather-related impacts have been reported over the western parts of the Free State as well as over the north-eastern parts of the Northern Cape (covering the period 26 to 27 January 2021). Some of these impacts included damage to (and closure of) roads, widespread flooding as well as evacuations of some communities and people stranded by rising floodwaters. It is likely that extensive damage to crops as well as waterlogged farmlands will ultimately lead to significantly impaired agricultural production in these areas.
The SA Weather Service forecast has been updated to take into account that the weather system that contributed towards the abovementioned impacts moved somewhat faster than the numeric models originally predicted. A “Day Natural Colour” RGB satellite image for Southern Africa, valid for 08h00SAST 28 January 2021, can be seen in Figure 1, while a map indicating measured rainfall over the past 24 hours, 08h00 27 January to 08h00 28 January 2021 is shown in Figure 2. By comparison, Figure 3 indicates the model predicted rainfall which is likely to occur over South Africa between today and tomorrow.
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