Spring Day: SAWS says this season will be rainier and warmer than usual

The first day of September marks the first day of Meteorological Spring in South Africa and the rest of the southern hemisphere. The South African Weather Service (SAWS) said the upcoming transition season is predicted to be rainier and warmer than usual.

SPRING DAY

SAWS senior forecaster Dipuo Tawana said 1 September also marks the beginning of the thunderstorm season in South Africa. “The South African Weather Service would like to send a heads up to the South African community to say that this is the beginning of those thundering afternoon thunderstorms,” said Tawana in a video.

The forecaster said Spring is a transition season – from winter to summer – and therefore the country experiences both the winter and summer weather systems. The central and eastern parts of South Africa is expected to experience mainly heat-induced thunderstorms.

Tawana said the commencement of the spring season is the busiest time of the year for some of the weather service’s forecasters in the central and eastern regions – the areas where thunderstorms are expected.

SEASONAL FORECAST

The SAWS said that its seasonal forecast for spring anticipates above-normal rainfall as well as above-normal temperatures in most parts of the country.

Tawana said severe thunderstorm warnings were the most common severe weather alerts issued during this time of year. “Severe thunderstorms are thunderstorms that may come with a large amount of hail. We can also have tornadoes, strong damaging winds and heavy downpours that may lead to flash flooding.”

The Fire Danger Index also plays a big role in spring and helps the SAWS alert the public when conditions are favourable for runaway fires. Tawana said this mainly occurs over the western provinces – the Northern Cape and Western Cape – because those areas are particularly dry.

HOW SAWS WORKS OUT THE SEASONS

Without fail, every spring day announcement leads to a dispute about whether it actually is the first day of the season. The SAWS said this disagreement is found in scientific circles as well as with regular people.

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“South Africa does not really experience four distinct seasons. In South Africa the transitional seasons of Autumn and Spring tend to be very short. Most analysis of climate is done using the assumption that January is mid-summer and July min-winter,” said SAWS.

While there is no official designation on when the seasons begin or end, the SAWS prefers the meteorological definition of the dates, rather than the astronomical method, because of conformity and it is easier to remember.

“The use of intervals of exactly three calendar months for the conventional temperate latitude seasons is a matter of convenience rather than climatological reality,” said SAWS.

“The durations of these seasons depend on the climate of the region, and have no direct relationship to either the astronomical seasons or the calendar months. Thus September is spring-like in Gauteng, with cool mornings and warm afternoons, whereas it is still winter-like in the Western Cape, with the possibility of snow on the Eastern Cape mountains.”

The national weather service feels the public would find it too confusing to if there was a different set of seasonal dates adopted for different parts of South Africa in order to encompass the different weather conditions in each part.

Therefore, 1 September until 30 November is spring in South Africa.