Heatwave expected to last until Friday

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Climate expert Professor Guy Midgley says that a combination of factors has led to the current heatwave and weather conditions in the country.

This follows a warning by the South African Weather Service for heatwave conditions in parts of the country this week.

Tomorrow’s Weather Update: Thursday
Isolated to scattered thundershowers are expected with a chance of Severe Thunderstorms over the eastern & western parts of the Free State, north-eastern parts of the Northern Cape as well as the extreme western parts of the North-West. pic.twitter.com/CuAf2pP8Wr

— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) November 22, 2023

Midgley says this is due to the climate temperature regime shifting higher.

“It’s the well-known El Niño effect, which tends to lead to warmer oceans- and it’s the long-term warming due to greenhouse gases. Every El Niño is different, but what you tend to find is- the warm records, more and more hot records are being broken- and fewer and fewer cold records are being broken, so the planet’s temperature regime is shifting higher and higher, and we’re also seeing a rise in atmospheric methane- which is a very powerful greenhouse gas. On top of it all, we have issues relating to heating caused by better control of pollution.”

Affected provinces include Gauteng, the Free State, the North West, the Northern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal.

The extremely hot conditions are expected until at least Friday.

Outlook for Friday( 24/11/23) and Saturday (25/11/23):
Very Hot to hot conditions will persist into Friday and Saturday for most of the country. Isolate to scattered showers and Thundershowers are also in the cards, except in the extreme north-eastern and western parts. pic.twitter.com/x6Ph2AZxr2

— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) November 22, 2023