The heat is on in Pretoria
Temperatures in Pretoria are set to soar over the next week and could be accompanied by thunder and lightning storms.
|||Pretoria - Temperatures in Pretoria are set to soar over the next week and could be accompanied by thunder and lightning storms.
On Tuesday the SA Weather Service said it was keeping a close eye on the temperatures in case they reached heatwave conditions.
Forecasters from the SA Weather Service on Tuesday said the heat conditions would remain high and in the upper 30s through to the weekend, dipping slightly on Thursday but offering no real relief.
Forecaster Christina Theale said Wednesday’s minimum temperatures would be 20 ºC and the maximum could hit 37 ºC:
“Temperatures will drop (Thursday), but will bring no major relief,” she said.
A 60 percent chance of thunderstorms on Thursday afternoon and early evening could bring with it slightly cooler temperatures, she said, adding that Pretoria could expect a 30 percent chance of rainfall on Wednesday.
She said a 60 percent chance of rainfall was predicted for Pretoria and the northern region of the province on Friday morning.
Temperatures could be at a low of 20 ºC and reach 34 ºC on Friday.
Saturday and Sunday morning are expected to be cooler at 17 C, but will rise to 34 ºC by midday, Theale said.
The country was recently caught in the grip of a severe heatwave, accompanied by dry conditions, which, with the drought, has seen water levels drop very low.
Temperatures at the height of the heatwave last month went as high as 38 ºC and had weather experts predicting that the country would experience the highest temperatures reached in years this summer.
The extreme weather conditions are expected to last until the end of the summer in April next year.
Theale on Tuesday said there were a lot of hot conditions being experienced across the country, which were expected to spread.
“At the moment we cannot talk of a heatwave,” she said, adding that weather stations were carefully monitoring the situation in the province and beyond.
@ntsandvose
Pretoria News
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