Over the weekend the South African Weather Service (SAWS) issued severe weather warnings across the country, including an orange level 5 warning for disruptive rainfall leading to flooding of roads and settlements, as well as danger to life due to fast-flowing streams expected over the north-eastern parts of Limpopo’s Vhembe district.
In the Limpopo district of Vhembe and Mopani, as well as the Mpumalanga district of Ehlanzeni, a yellow level 2 warning had been issued for disrupting rainfall. Localised flooding is expected to occur, as are poor driving conditions because of pooled water and reduced visibility over the Limpopo and Mpumalanga districts.
This was topped off by extremely high fire hazard conditions across the Northern Cape’s northern sections, as well as a heatwave with continuously high temperatures over the province’s Dawid Kruiper and Kai !Garib municipalities. The worst consequences of tropical storm Freddy were avoided as it weakened over Mozambique, dispersing faster than experts had predicted.
Human Rights Watch researcher Zenaida Machado tweeted that Cyclone Freddy has arrived in Mozambique with no strength. “Cyclone Freddy arrived in Mozambique with no strength. But it left behind serious rains across the country. In some places, the rain and floods ares testing the quality of some constructions as the picture shows,” he tweeted.