Overview
- The South African Weather Service has active impact-based warnings for Thursday that include Yellow Level 4 severe-thunderstorm alerts for Gauteng, the Mpumalanga Highveld, central-southern Limpopo, eastern Free State, eastern North West and most of KwaZulu‑Natal.
- Yellow Level 2 warnings apply to parts of the central and western Free State and North West, the Mpumalanga escarpment, southern Limpopo and the northern interior of the Eastern Cape, while a Yellow Level 1 warning for damaging interior (berg) winds covers other parts of the Eastern Cape.
- In parts of the Eastern Cape the damaging wind window and the thunderstorm window overlap roughly between 13:00 and 16:59 on Thursday, which raises the chance of compound impacts to homes, transport routes and ageing infrastructure.
- SAWS says storms may produce heavy downpours, large amounts of small hail, excessive lightning and strong gusts that can cause localised flooding and disrupt electricity and communications, while separate hot, humid conditions and very high UVB in KwaZulu‑Natal and extremely high fire danger in parts of the Northern and Western Cape create additional hazards.
- Residents, farmers and transport operators should monitor SAWS updates, avoid sheltering under trees during storms, secure loose structures and be ready for rapid changes to timing and severity of conditions that could cause local evacuations or road closures.