New heatwave expected to persist until Friday

SAWS forecaster Ishmael Moyo says a heatwave advisory has been issued for Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo,  North West, Free State and the northern and north-western parts of KwaZulu-Natal for persistently high temperatures for the week ahead.

"For today (Wednesday) for Gauteng, Pretoria we are expecting 36°C, for Johannesburg, 33°C, Vereening with likely the same temperatures expected for the week as well."

Moyo adds that some showers and thundershowers are expected throughout the week.

"We do expect some thunderstorms today (Wednesday), we have a 30% chance for showers and thundershowers mainly in the afternoon,covering the entire Gauteng and Mpumalanga.

"There's also a possibility of a 60% there along the escarpment of Mpumalanga just for today (Wednesday) and tomorrow (Thursday) we expect a 30% covering the entire Gauteng, Highveld of Mpumalanga as well as the southwestern Bushveld of Limpopo.

"On Friday, also a 30% covering similar areas extending to the Lowveld of Mpumalanga, also a better chance there over the southeastern parts.

"The Piet Retief area, the southern Highveld of Mpumalanga can expect a 60%, but the remainder of the area of Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng will just be covered by a 30%."

Moyo says slight cooling can be expected from Saturday.

"Seems like there will be a cooling on Saturday, however, the temperatures will still be quite high especially over Gauteng, southwestern Bushveld of Limpopo and the western Highveld of Mpumalanga.

"The cooling is not that convincing over those areas, so we'll still be in the mid and upper 30s on Saturday for Gauteng, although they might not reach the heatwave threshold, they will be very much close to it."

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