Tag: rain

If the rain in the Western Cape could just calm its tits a bit, that would be great

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OK, disclaimers first. I know that it’s autumn. I know that it’s meant to rain from about now through until the end of August if we’re lucky. I know that we need the rain to fill up the dams so that we can have water in the summer. And I know that if it doesn’t rain all in one go, then it will have to rain all the time, and that’s not great.

But…

Another 31mm on a single day?

Is this the way that things are going to work from now on? 4 miserable days in a row, one of them with added flood risk?

I’m just asking so that I can try to adjust to this new normal.
And sort out the waterproofing in my garage.

Or is there perhaps a plan to get all the rain done by June and then have an extra two months of summer? Obviously, that is not going to happen, and it would have a horrific effect on agriculture and wildlife if it did. But an extra 8 weeks of sunshine would please a lot of people. Just saying.

Either way, if thing keep going like this, we’re going to have the dams back up at 100% well in time for next summer.
Whenever that might start.

5 weeks on

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5 (and a bit) weeks on from this day:

When numerous local records were broken for heat all over the Western Cape. And we find ourselves in Cape Town probably with temperatures pretty much as low as they’re going to get during the day this year.

100mm rain over the last three days – that was only up to 8am this morning, which is when the local figures are collated – and there has been PLENTY more today. (I can still hear it battering down now.)

The wind at Simonstown apparently gusted up to 104kph this afternoon: just short of hurricane strength. It’s been a bit of a wild day, and I’m almost glad that I chose gym over a run.

I know that the seasons change, and that the weather changes with them, but you generally do expect the highs and lows to be six months apart, not six weeks.

Thankfully, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (25oC) are looking actually rather nice, which is great for football, washing, and biology field trips: all of which will be happening on those days.

And we really shouldn’t complain. We need the rain.

I’ll pop a quick post up tomorrow with some updated dam level and rainfall info, for anyone interested. And then a post about invasive plants or something slightly less mundane than the weather.

T&Cs apply.

Quite a bit of rain

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With Cape Town allegedly desperate for rain (except we’re only comparing the dam levels this year with those from last year which followed the wettest winter on record), Cape Town is going to get some rain.

Quite a bit of rain.

Time to light the fire, grab some red wine, slow cook a beef casserole and hide under a duvet.

Not all at the same time, obviously. Incredibly foolish idea. Mess everywhere.

But it is probably best to just check that your gutters are all clear in tomorrow’s balmy 19oC before Friday hits.

This isn’t the first big storm of the season: it’s not even a proper cold front. But actually, the lack of wind (8kph SW) does mean that once the rain arrives, it’s not going to go away very quickly, and thus will keep falling on the same bit of South Africa (Cape Town) all day.

Edit: It is. Forecast updated. Wet and windy.

Don’t say that you weren’t warned.

A bit of a moan

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It hasn’t rained much in Cape Town over the last few weeks. Maybe even the last few months.

And there is a bit of “Day Zero” talk entering the chat, although to be fair, we’re a long way from that sort of scenario at the moment (but you never say never).

In fact, looking back, I can only really remember a few hours of rain over the last few months. Two of those hours were last Tuesday night, when we tried to watch the cricket. It didn’t rain all day – just for the few hours when we actually needed it to be dry, so that they could play cricket. And once the cricket (such as it was) was over (no pun intended), it stopped raining and was all hot and dry again.

And the other few hours are… well… now. Again, it’s been a scorcher of a day, but then this evening, it began to rain. Why? Well, that would be because our daughter went to an outdoor concert.

Not this morning (dry), not this afternoon (hot and dry), just this evening. And, much like the evening of the cricket, it looks like the rain will stop pretty much as the concert ends.

There will be no rain tomorrow evening, when there also won’t be a concert.

Perfect.

I once had an idea involving an iceberg, which would have solved Cape Town’s water issues forever.

I did a fair amount of maths and stuff for that, but actually, why bother with dragging a chunk of Antarctica all the way to South Africa and then filling the Franschhoek Valley with ice when I can clearly just make it rain by spending money on weather-sensitive evening activities?

If you need some rain, I’ll just buy expensive tickets for a theatre thing or some tennis (ok, not tennis), and we can all enjoy the precipitation and petrichor as the evening is ruined, the money wasted, but the dams filled up.

IN CASE YOU ARE WONDERING – and I don’t blame you for wanting to ask – no, I can’t see any more events in our diary which will be ruined by rainfall, just yet. So you’re free to go about your business safe in the knowledge that it’s not going to rain on your parade.

Only mine.

But of course, I’ll keep you informed.