Wet one

The big cold front which was expected to drop in at about 9pm this evening has – according to the word on the street* – already hit Hout Bay.

It’s horrible here

were the exact words that were used, prompting me to immediately type (and then tactfully delete) my reply:

I know. What’s the weather like?

And I do know.

But looking over that way, it does look as if the apocalypse might finally – mercifully – be upon us.

Thus, tonight will be full on Wuthering Heights stuff. Elemental. Cold, windy and wet, with Catherine’s ghost knocking on the window up to 50mm of rain forecast in the next 24 hours. And there’s another 50 on the way early next week.

This isn’t unusual for Cape Town in late autumn, but it is rather unpleasant. The draining effect of the cold, dreary weather is exacerbated by loadshedding, and in turn exacerbates it right back by increasing demand for more heating and light. In addition (of course), solar panels don’t help at all when there’s no sun, so backup batteries are charged from the grid (when it’s on) and that adds to demand and… er… exacerbates loadshedding.

A recipe for misery.

Except of course that every cloud (and I’m looking specifically about those ones rapidly approaching from the South Atlantic) has a silver lining. It wasn’t so long ago that we didn’t have any water at all in this corner of the continent, and we’d do well to remember the stress that little episode caused.

If (and it is always an if) the forecasts are correct, then we could be looking at anything up to 8 or maybe even 10% added to the dams by this time next week.

So always look on the bright side of life (unless you’re in one of those 4½ hour slots of darkness, during which time, there is no bright available).

* a Whatsapp message from the horse-riding instructor.

Hiding inside

It is, as was promised, wild, wet and windy outside. Thus, the fire is lit, the beagle is tucked up in front of it, and I’m sitting in front of a warm TV.

I did manage a reasonably quick 7km this morning before the worst of the weather arrived. And I also made sure that everything in the garden was prepared for the incoming storm.

And so I feel completely vindicated in hiding inside as the rain rattles down out there now. I might even open a bottle of red wine.

Fight me.

The weekend beckons

Indeed. And we had such high hopes of getting down to Agulhas ahead of what promises to be one of the biggest storms of the year hitting our little corner of Africa from Sunday afternoon. But it wasn’t to be, due mainly to reasons, but also, because of some circumstances.

These things happen.

And so we’re staying put, allowing for an extra riding lesson on Saturday afternoon and… well… that’s actually about all. But on the plus side, there will be a nice warm fire, some football and almost certainly some steaks on the braai* at some point to fill the gaps around the horsey stuff.

From the top, that’s day and time, wind speed and gusts in kph, wind direction and wave heights in m.

Anyway, I’m about to go and light that fire right now as it feels like the first tendrils of that cold front are just beginning to touch the Mother City…

* clearly not on Sunday

Weather

Another warm day. Very windy, but pleasant enough.
But it’s dark and grey now, with menacing clouds advancing over the mountain.
Yes, the storm is coming, but I also have to remind myself that it is winter and the sun does go down at about this time anyway, so that might well be the reason for at least some of the darkness.

But none of the menacing.

I, for one, am looking forward to a bit of drama and the disappearance of this high pressure, dry, stuffy, polluted air with all the sinus, allergies and static electric shocks.

The weather warnings are for “Damaging winds” and “Disruptive rain” with “Significant impact” (their capitalisation) from this evening. I’m going to let the gardener know that he doesn’t have to come in tomorrow.
No-one is going to want to be out and about in that.
Quite reasonably.

Early days, but…

A bit of a heads up: the weather from Sunday evening in and around Cape Town is looking decidedly wintery.

Properly nasty stuff, and a far cry from today’s balmy bergwind-assisted 28C.

I’ve stocked up with half a ton of fire and braai wood, not just because we might want to pollute the atmosphere keep warm next week, but also so that the skink in the woodpile has a bit more shelter when the storm does hit. Got to think of the nature, right?

This one (the storm, not the skink) seems not just to be the biggest one of the year so far, but will also feature a series of cold fronts one after the other, prompting worries that any damage early on could be compounded and exacerbated by the following few days.

It’s still all at least five days away though, so nothing is set in stone just yet. But it might be worth clearing out your gutters and sheltering your skink just so you’re all prepared.