Saturday’s weather: Thundershowers across SA, with strong winds in Western Cape | News24

Thunderstorms are expected in most parts of the country.

Thunderstorms are expected in most parts of the country; these will be severe in the Northern Cape, North West, and Free State, according to the South African Weather Service (SAWS).

Damaging winds are forecast in parts of the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

Impact-based warnings

Orange Level 5 warning: Severe thunderstorms leading to flooding of susceptible settlements and roads, strong gusty winds, and hail causing damage to structures, falling trees and municipal service outages due to excessive lightning activity over the central parts of the Northern Cape.

Yellow Level 4 warning: Severe thunderstorms leading to localised flooding of susceptible settlements and roads, strong gusty winds, and hail causing damage to structures, falling trees and municipal services outages due to excessive lightning activity over the central and eastern parts of Northern Cape, as well as the extreme western parts of North West.

Yellow Level 2 warning: Severe thunderstorms leading to localised wind and hail damage to structures, falling trees, and local fire incidents due to excessive lightning over the Free State and most parts of the North West.

Yellow Level 2 warning: Damaging winds and waves leading to disruption of ports and harbours, and danger to navigation at sea from Richards Bay to Maputo.

Yellow Level 2 warning: Damaging winds leading to disruption of ports and harbours, and danger to navigation at sea from Cape Town to Cape Agulhas.

In the SAWS’ colour-coded weather warning system, yellow indicates a moderate risk of impact that requires caution and awareness, while orange indicates that a higher-risk impact is expected, requiring increased attention and preparation.

The SAWS uses the numbers to indicate the likelihood of weather-based impacts occurring. Levels 2 and 6 are high, Level 5 is medium, and Levels 4 and 8 are low.

The weather in your province

Gauteng: Cloudy and cool with scattered showers and thundershowers.

Mpumalanga: Morning fog along the escarpment, otherwise partly cloudy and cool to cold with isolated showers and thundershowers. It will be cloudy in the east.

Limpopo: Morning fog along the escarpment, otherwise partly cloudy and cool to warm with isolated showers and thundershowers but scattered in the southwest. It will be cloudy in the east.

North West: Cloudy, windy and cool to warm, with scattered showers and thundershowers but widespread showers in the west.

Free State: Cloudy, windy and cool to warm with scattered showers and thundershowers but isolated showers in the extreme east.

Northern Cape: The central and eastern parts are expected to be cloudy, with widespread to scattered showers and thundershowers; otherwise fine to partly cloudy and cool to warm, with isolated showers and thundershowers expected in places over the western parts.

Morning fog patches are expected in places in the south.

The wind along the coast will be fresh south-easterly.

Western Cape: Fine to partly cloudy and cool to warm, but cloudy over the north-eastern parts until the afternoon, with drizzle over the south-eastern parts in the evening.

The wind along the coast will be fresh to strong easterly along the south coast, otherwise fresh to strong southerly to south-easterly, reaching gale force along the southwest coast.

Eastern Cape: Cloudy and cool with light rain in places along the coast in the western half, and light rain and showers in the eastern half.

The wind along the coast will be moderate easterly in the west and light to moderate easterly to north-easterly in the east.

KwaZulu-Natal: Cloudy and cold to cool with isolated showers and rain.

The wind along the coast will be fresh to strong southerly to south-westerly north of Richards Bay at first, otherwise moderate to fresh easterly to south-easterly.

It will become moderate to fresh north-easterly south of Durban by late morning, spreading to Cape St Lucia in the evening.

*This weather report was written with the support of Toqan AI.