Pixabay
Pixabay
After more than a month of waiting, the Cape Town rainfall brought a proper deluge with it and eased fears sparked by a dry July.
The heavens opened on Monday afternoon, dousing all that was in its path. After making landfall shortly after midday, the downpours headed north-east and stretched further into the Western Cape.
This was part of a double-header of good news for the drought-stricken province, as regional dam levels had registered an improvement following a midweek dip in numbers.
How much rain fell in Cape Town on Monday 6 August?
The coastal areas fared relatively well, with the Mother City itself registering 12mm of rainfall. Strand and Hermanus also notched up 17 – 24mm of rain between their municipalities.
However, it was arguably the dams that fared the best: The Ceres catchment area – which straddles the Berg River dam – received almost 40mm of the wet stuff. Grabouw, just a few miles away from both Steenbras facilities, managed to outdo that:
????️RAINFALL OBSERVATIONS IN THE 24 HRS TO 8AM????️
☔️Grabouw 42mm
☔️Ceres AWS 39mm
☔️Cape Point 27mm
☔️Strand 24mm
☔️Hermanus 17mm
☔️Cape Town CBD 12mm
☔️Porterville 12mm
☔️Malmesbury 9mm
☔️Worcester 9mm@ReenvalSA @landbou @AgriSAOfficial @CapeTimesSA @CapeTalk pic.twitter.com/fZBCCoEgVn— AfricaWeather (@AfricaWeather_) August 7, 2018
Meanwhile, figures from the South African Weather Service paint an even brighter picture for the Cape:
Cape Town rainfall: Where does it rain the most?
Other big winners of this recent rainfall include Jonkershoek and Kirstenbosch. These areas are South Africa’s wettest settlements, yet struggled throughout July.
A normal July rainy season would see Jonkershoek take on 535mm of rain over a total of 31 days. It received just 170mm in the previous four weeks.
Kirstenbosch is also famous for its July downpours but has fallen well short of its monthly average. An approximate 12 days of rain is the norm for last month, but the region has experienced just four, and finished nowhere near its average of 247mm.
So Tuesday’s figures will be a huge source of optimism for a water-conscious Cape. With more rain reportedly on the way this weekend, it looks like August will be a lot kinder to the province than July was.
