Facebook Alerts:
Pat Ladell wrote: Lightning, thunder and raining...Port Elizabeth. 5 June 2012. 18:55.
Jennifer Anne Church Joubert send the following image:
05.06.2012 looking across Swartkops river towards Uitenhage. Just after 16h15.
Christine Webber wrote: Looks like bad weather starting to get to Bathurst. Very overcast. Few drops rain.
Twitter Alerts:
SAWDOS1 RT @AdeleGamba: 17h30 @SAWDOS1 Port Elizabeth - thunder, dark clouds, windy = Storm coming!
SAWDOS1 RT @AdeleGamba: 17H54 @SAWDOS1 Port Elizabeth - the storm has hit us! Lots of lightening and wind.
It started to rain at 20h17 in Mossel Bay. The SAWDOS advised our readers via Twitter:
SAWDOS1 20h17Cold front moved in over Mossel Bay. Heavy rain at times 5.3 mm in last 10 minutes - SAWDOS
At 20h30 the first lighting and thunder were observed moving in over Mossel Bay. SAWDOS send the following Twitter message.
SAWDOS1 20h40 Thunder and lightning in Mossel Bay. - SAWDOS 14 hours ago
The following tweets were then received of thunder, lightning and strong wind in areas of the Garden Route:
achybreakey @SAWDOS1 Thunder and continuous lightning, wind and heavy downpours just hit George at 21h07. Hold onto your hats, it's a biggie!
achybreakey @SAWDOS1 and as soon as it arrived it left! Flashflood of about 10 minutes.
Quantumlights @SAWDOS1. Thunder, lightning and pouring rain in Wilderness. Wow what a storm
haadiebardien @SAWDOS1 freaky storm just passed through George minutes ago,flashes of lightning & heavy winds
SAWDOS1 21h30 Freak thunderstorm hit Mossel Bay. Intense lightning and thunder. Strong wind. Power failure lasted 30 min. - SAWDOS
The storm caused a power failure in the Mossel Bay area and the SAWDOS switched to emergency power for nearly an hour. No reports of any damage has been received thus far.
I would like to thank all those who send in reports related to thunderstorm activity in the Southern and Eastern Cape. Once again the importance of real time weather observation was clearly demonstrated. The SAWDOS would like to remind our readers that we are not a weather forecasting service. The S.A. Weather and Disaster Observation Service provides a weather and disaster observation (Weather and Disaster Watching/Spotting) service in South Africa and not a weather prediction or disaster management service.
If you observe any strange weather or disaster send the info to the SAWDOS for publication. Do not assume that the SAWDOS knows for certain that severe weather has occurred in your area. Never assume that your weather observation report is not important.
We also remind our readers that the SAWDOS utilize the following social media formats to keep our readers informed :
SA Weather and Disaster Observation Service Blog - http://sawdis1.blogspot.com/
SAWDOS Twitter - http://sawdis1.blogspot.com/p/sawdis-twitter.html
SAWDOS Facebook Group - http://www.facebook.com/groups/374316165928426/
Please note that any of the above could be used during severe weather to keep the public informed or to notify the SAWDOS of an event.
Johan Terblanche
Founder: SA Weather and Disaster Observation Service
Mossel Bay
6 June 2012
Good morning sawdis.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where it came from last night at 20h45, but we had a mini-monsoon/typhoon here in Sedgefield, Garden route. Lightning was like a strobe light at a disco for a half hour. The green belt in front of our house was flooded in minutes and the thunder hit so hard it made our windows shake. It really was terrifying. The worst thing was that no one warned us of it. Not YRNO, not accuweather, not Zoover, and sawdis didn't know much about it either. Did it creep up unnoticed by anyone? I really hope we don't get another today, it wasn't very nice.
Enjoy your morning,
Carly van Heerden
Hallo,
ReplyDeleteRE: last nights storm in Sedgefield. I guess I am am just very curious as to how a storm of that magnitude forms without being noticed?
Thanks,
From Carly
Carly this is quite simple: South Africa has several weather radar stations in South Africa. The Southern Cape was excluded from the radar network. After representations by the SAWDOS a weather radar station was erected near Gouritz last year. It is not yet in operational mode but even if it was only a few privileged that can afford to pay the high subscription rates will have access to radars in South Africa. Unfortunately the poorest of the poor cannot afford to pay a subscription rate and must therefor fend for themselves. If all South Africans have free excess to weather radar images, storms can be tracked but not only tracked, the intensity of the storms will also be visible. The SAWDOS do not have sophisticated equipment to forecast or track storms and therefor we rely on real time weather observers, the public. It is really sad that citizens of this country must pay for weather information. That is why we must be vigilant storm observers and we must keep our communities informed about any severe weather. It would however be very interesting to know if any of the SAWS subscribers received SMS warnings of the storm in the Southern Cape.
Since no one knows when a natural or man made disaster can occur, therefore we must be trained in Emergency and Disaster Management
Delete