Tag: winter

Here we go again

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Gorgeous pre-frontal skies in Cape Town this morning can only mean one thing: a front is coming.

The hint is in the name, see?

And yes, it does look like tomorrow’s weather is going to be pretty ropey, then we’re in for a couple of very chilly days before Sunday, when… well… it’s looking positively biblical.

The weather apps agree on the timing, but are all at odds over the actual amount of rainfall. We’re looking at anything from 10-20mm tomorrow and anything from 22-50mm on Sunday. It’ll be cold and windy as well, just to add injury to injury.
Don’t expect daily highs of anything more than 15°C*.
Do expect winds gusting to 85+kph.

All of this will put additional strain on the electricity supply, which doesn’t even do well when everything is peachy, so it’s full-on recipe for disaster stuff. Ugh.

Thus, it would seem likely that tomorrow will be our first fire of the season. For the record, our first fire of last winter was 25th April. This is probably the most predictable weather-related thing that’s ever occurred in Cape Town.

* we’ve been down “15 isn’t cold road” many times before. don’t force me to make you to turn right onto “well 30 isn’t hot avenue”.

A family divided…

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…by choice.

It’s been ages since we’ve been down to Agulhas, and the cottage probably needs a good clean and check-up, and certainly deserves some more electricity. But this weekend looks very cold and wet, and Mrs 6000 likes warm and dry, so she will be staying home with the Boy Wonder and I will be taking our daughter down to the stormy seaside for a couple of days.

The beagle will be bedding down, sloth-like, here in Cape Town.

The first thing to be packed in the car was a big bag of fresh firewood, and burning that is something that I’m very much looking forward to. The second thing to be packed was a couple of bottles of decent red wine, and drinking that is also something that I’m very much looking forward to.
As is dodging between the showers and getting some South Atlantic sea air and exercise on the beach.

The drive down might be less pleasant, but it’s a means to an end, and the end will hopefully be quite fun.

More from there tomorrow.

Day 517 – Something to look forward to

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Deliciously sunny day today. If you’re wondering how my recovery is going – using the internationally recognised Duvet Cover Hanging Scale – I hung a duvet cover on the washing line and then had to sit down for 10 minutes.
That’s only 5 minutes longer than my pre-Covid levels.

Things are clearly improving.

But you’d better get your washing done quick quick, because tomorrow, this:

Indeed. Winter is not quite over yet.

On the plus side, this will probably (definitely) be enough to top off our dams at 100% ahead of the drier weather which will definitely (probably) be on the way real soon now. We’re currently sitting at 98.8%, with just another 10,427,000,000 litres needed to break that all important 898,221,000,000 litre mark.

Easy.

Check your gutters and drains. Wrap up warmly. Stay safe.

Regional numbers for reporting emergencies in the Western Cape:

· City of Cape Town – 107 or 021 480 7700 and 080 911 4357

· Overberg – 028 425 1690

· West Coast – 022 433 8700

· Garden Route – 044 805 5071

· Central Karoo – 023 449 8000

· Cape Winelands – 021 886 9244 / 021 887 4446

Day 466 – One more from yesterday

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Mostly dodging yesterday’s showers, we headed out to Tokai Forest for a quick wander with the beagle. I took along the camera, but given the weather and the fact that it was a family walk, not a photography trip, just with the 50mm lens. Small, neat, easy to carry, fun to use.

You can see most of the results of this decision on Instagram, but I held this one of a shower over Constantiaberg back because it worked better in B&W and didn’t work as a square crop, and so didn’t fit with those others.

There was some lovely sunshine from time to time yesterday, but there were definitely wintery bits in between, like this sudden shower. It would be wrong of me not to share this and somehow mistakenly give you the impression that spring was on the way.

It’s not. Yet.

Day 375 – Chilled (literally)

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The weather was awful today. Cold, dark, grey and windy. The first proper wintery day of the year. And all that with no cold front to explain it.

We would have been well within our rights to stay at home and snuggle under a blanket or three, but instead, we braved the garden centre, sorted the herb garden, volunteered at the Woof Project and only then tucked oursleves safely inside for the rest of the day.

Taskmaster and GeoGuessr have filled the pre-football evening.

Football will fill the rest of it.