Category: this is south africa

Cool story

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I’m not usually one for dramatised versions of true stories on the internet, but (if you ignore the third paragraph), this one doesn’t go over the top, and is an interesting account of the Koeberg bombing, with just enough whimsical input to give it that personal touch.

Some good insight into the way that MK and ANC operative worked in the Apartheid state, without too much detail bogging things down, and the personal story of Wilkinson – who is as far from James Bond as you could possibly imagine – gives it a very human edge.

The link?

Oh yes, here you go:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/05/the-man-who-blew-up-a-nuclear-power-station-koeberg-south-africa

Definitely worth 5 (or more) minutes of your time.

Still pretty, still pricey

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Cape Town doesn’t look its best today.

It looks like a scene from a disaster movie, with floods, broken trees, branches and damaged buildings everywhere.

We did get completely battered by yesterday’s storm.

But… give it a couple of weeks (ok, or maybe a month), and all that will be tidied up and forgotten about, and Cape Town will still be the most desirable city on the continent.

Which has its drawbacks:

But still, you’d rather be here than anywhere else.

That was a biggie

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Monumental weather today.
Over 100mm of rain, winds gusting to 120kph, just absolute carnage.

Biggest storm this century for the Mother City, allegedly.

I’m finding it hard to disagree.

Floods everywhere, trees down – one killing a motorist just around the corner from us – branches all over the place. It’s going to take a while to clear up.
School went ahead for us, but plenty didn’t. And everyone has the day off tomorrow…

…which seems weird, given that today was horrific and dangerous, and tomorrow is just going to be wholly unpleasant. But I doubt that many students will be complaining.

There was a 1½ hour period this morning where nothing could land at Cape Town airport:

Imagine leaving Johannesburg, and then – 4 hours later – ending up in… Johannesburg.

Heartbreakingly awful. Thoughts and prayers.

Locally, there is plenty of damage, with trees down all over the neighbourhood. With the polyphagous shot hole borer beetle epidemic having weakened many of the oak trees around the area, the winds were just too much for a lot of them, and the results are pretty devastating.

If the forecast is correct (and it’s been unerringly accurate today), then we’re just in for about 20mm of rain tomorrow, which is still a lot, unless you’ve had 110mm the previous day, in which case you feel like grabbing your swimsuit and then heading to the beach.

Hopefully, with less wind and less rain, there will be an opportunity to start the clear up: not least for me in our garden. Although, maybe I actually quite like our new rim-flow pool.

Tomorrow

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Today hasn’t been that bad.

But tomorrow looks rather ominous.

The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued an Orange Level 8 weather warning for disruptive rainfall in the Western Cape.

Level 8 indicates “Severe” impact, and yes, Mother Nature is throwing everything at us all at once: big waves, big winds, and a lot of rain.

The Garden Route was hit by an Orange Level 8 last week, and… well…

It didn’t end well.

While many schools in the Winelands are closed tomorrow, ours in Cape Town go ahead unless we hear differently overnight.

We’re as ready as we can be. 

I have an umbrella.

Let’s see what happens.

It’s happening again!

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Remember this?

That cold front actually dropped 54mm on us in just under 24 hours.

And so yes, that is how it’s going to work, and so I wasn’t wrong in my assessment.

Check out this weekend:

We get somewhere around 1400mm of rainfall a year in this bit of Cape Town. So to get another 100mm (give or take) over 3 days this weekend on top of the 200mm from the last two weeks would really be quite something.

And the good news is that the rainfall over the dams is above the long term average for this time of year for just the second time this decade.

At least we’re not on the Garden Route this week.