Africa: Africa Weather Forecast launched its weekly summary (30 Jan – 5 Feb 2023). As per African weather reports, Intermittent rainfall is expected over the central and eastern parts most of the week but becoming more focused over Limpopo from Thursday onwards.
There are structures that have formed a moisture conveyer belt with the tropics contributing to relentless rainfall over most of the country, except for the far west (Western Cape and western Northern Cape). Some parts of the country, such as the eastern Highveld, are highly susceptible to flooding as they’re positioned in places where excessive rainfall is expected and daily rainfall accumulations that don’t allow the land to breathe for better infiltration.
It is cloudy and cool over the central and eastern parts, with light morning rainfall in places such as Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Around midday, isolated thunderstorms over the central and eastern regions are highly anticipated, with moderate rainfall (20-40mm) expected over eastern North West, central Free State, central Limpopo, southern Mpumalanga and western KwaZulu-Natal.
From Tuesday and the rest of the week, intermittent showers and thundershowers will keep on redeveloping further west, resulting in widespread cloudy, wet and cool conditions almost over the entire country throughout the week. This results from an upper air perturbation aiding the continental trough as it lodges into Northern Cape.
There is a low-to-medium chance of high-impact thunderstorms with hail and strong winds over the central interior today (Monday), in the west and south-eastern parts on Tuesday, but mainly over the eastern Eastern Cape on Wednesday.
On the other hand, although there may be cases of flash floods in the abovementioned areas, there is more evidence of excessive rainfall leading to flash floods in the following areas. The central interior on Monday, the central and eastern parts on Tuesday and the eastern and north-eastern parts on Wednesday (including Gauteng but excluding Limpopo).
From Thursday onwards, chances of hail and strong winds are almost non-existent as the system loses momentum. However, intense rainfall is still expected over the east and north-eastern regions (particularly Limpopo) for the rest of the week.