Murk

When spring finally came, it came in HOT!

Temperatures have been into the 30s for most of the last week, and with the still, warm air over the city, the air quality has been noticeably decreasing. But what we’re seeing (or not seeing, because it’s so polluted) at the moment is only classed as “Moderate” on the AQI (Air Quality Index (low numbers are better numbers)) scale:

But look at that: today’s allegedly “Moderate” levels have nothing on tomorrow, where – in the early afternoon – we’re looking at “Very Unhealthy” air quality, before returning to something altogether (well, slightly) more satisfactory on Wednesday and Thursday.

Here’s the AQI scale for reference:

And you’ll note immediately that we run up 3 steps to the penultimate level of nastiness in the next 24 hours. That’s mainly due to high counts for PM2.5 and low level ozone:

PM2.5, (also written PM2.5) are tiny particles of dust or soot – especially prevalent in vehicle exhaust fumes – and which are contributing to the murky, hazy atmosphere over the city at the moment.

Then – and bear with me here – add in those high levels of low level ozone…

Yes, I know it’s a bit confusing: high levels of high level ozone are good – thanks for using your roll-on deodorant back in the 1980s and 90s – but we really only want the ozone about 20 or 25km up there, and not at ground level:

Ground-level ozone or the “bad” ozone that forms closer to the Earth in the air we breathe. This ozone is not usually emitted directly, but rather forms from chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in sunlight.

These pollutants can have acute effects on people who suffer with asthma or other respiratory diseases. Especially at these hugely elevated levels. It’s not called “Very Unhealthy” just for shits and giggles (neither of which are symptoms, by the way).
Longer term effects can include cardio-vascular problems and issues in pregnancy, but we’re fortunate in Cape Town that while quite ugly, these are fairly rare levels for this little corner of Africa.

A small cold front passing over or near to the Cape on Wednesday will see a lot of this nastiness blown out into the South Atlantic where it can dissipate and harm the wildlife instead of us important humans.

But in the meantime, if you are sensitive to pollution and/or you do suffer from asthma or a respiratory illness, you might want to take steps to protect yourself from what promises to be a rather unpleasant day tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Who knew? (Whale spotting edition)

Big news from EWN this week:

Yep. Same as every year:

Southern Right Whales have come to visit Cape Town shores to give birth or to find a mate – this is done every year between June and December. 

But while these are indeed magnificent creatures to see, and while they are here each and every year, some locals might not know where to look. It’s ok. EWN has got you covered, with a list of places that you can spot a whale “in Cape Town”. They’ve listed 22 different places that you can see whales.

From Doringbaai up the West Cooat (marked in red, top left) through to Nature’s Valley on the Garden Route (blue, bottom right).

Eagle-eyed readers (who will also be best at spotting whales) might notice that that’s basically the entire coastline of the Western Cape. And anyone clicking through on that link above will see that, yes, all of the 22 locations on the list are located on the coast.

So it seems to me that if you want to see whales… you probably just need to go anywhere in the Western Cape and look out to sea.

Who knew?

It’s actually rather unhelpful that they don’t also mention that you should probably do it during the day to increase your spotting success rate. Or to use binoculars to make the whales look closer.

Cape Town baffled by big yellow ball

Multiple reports of bewildered local citizens are coming in this morning, as Cape Town awoke to a strange yellow ball hovering in the sky.

Some individuals claimed that they had witnessed this phenomenon previously, but when pressed, couldn’t really remember when.

Others, like Kevin van der Tinfoil from Tamboerskloof, are convinced that it represented some sort of alien activity:

It’s like nothing I’ve seen before, so it’s almost certainly aliens trying to communicate with us. What else could make a light so bright?

It’s aliens.

And that brightness was something others noticed, too. Sinethemba Ilanga from Pinelands was admitted to the Cape Town Eye Hospital after staring at the ball for “at least 20 minutes”.

I literally had never seen anything like it before, and now I literally can’t see anything at all.

Denise Argument from Brackenfell was terrified by a “dark reflection” on the ground next to her:

It’s been following me around all day. It’s terrifying. It mocks me by instantly copying all my movements. It could be an evil spirit or a message from God, but my friend Kevin says it’s aliens.

So it’s probably aliens.

The City Council has moved to bring scientists in to investigate just what the mysterious object was, but it had disappeared before they arrived, and is not expected to be seen for at least another month.

Here we go again… again.

It’s rough out there at the moment, and it’s about to get rougher

Tomorrow is so nasty, they are closing all the schools and they’ve only been open since yesterday.

And this on top of 243mm (and still counting) that we’ve had over the last week. There’s quite literally nowhere for all the water to go, and I’m saying that even though we’re right next to a big ocean. In fact, that’s actually where the bloody rain is coming from in the first place.

I’m not attributing this series of cold fronts to climate change (I’ve covered this here and here “recently”), but there’s no doubt that we are likely to experience more extreme weather events over the coming year. I read an interesting paper on the effect that this might have on our tourism industry:

And so we brace for tomorrow and the following week, in which we’re looking at another 150mm.

Need an ark built?
I Noah bloke.

More weather

Aside from a surprise heatwave (not forecast yet, but you never rule it out), we have had all the weather in the last few days.

Today, it’s more rain. With the total for the last week sitting comfortably over the 100mm mark, there’s been almost another 50mm this morning alone, it’s still falling hard and it. is. miserable.

This glum, grey, wet weather is forecast the continue until Sunday, with Google helpfully(?) telling me that the next time I would see the sun is Monday. Talk about adding insult to injury.

I was up at 7 this morning, outside in the rain and trying to unblock the garage box gutter which was full of pine needles and moss, and therefore thoroughly incapable of emptying. We’re usually very good at keeping it clean, but the wind while we were away, with the assistance of the alien pine tree across the road, had filled the downpipe rather effectively, meaning that all of the rain was pouring into the garage through the roof.

A thoroughly unpleasant wake-up call after a lovely weekend away.

The rain shows no sign of stopping today or anytime soon, so I’m planning all my necessary travel around places that have indoor parking. And taking an umbrella to anywhere else.

Stay safe, stay warm, help others to do the same wherever you can.