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.