Gauteng much warmer than in '60s

30 July 2014 - 02:01 By Shaun Smillie
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Image: Reuben Goldberg

In the 1960s, when Elvis Presley was king, South Africa was colder.

The interior of the country then, on average, was nearly 2ºC colder and this is evidence, climatologists say, that South Africa will be hit hard by global warming.

In an academic paper published in the recent South African Journal of Science, scientists examined temperatures from 1960 to 2010. What was found were increases in maximum temperatures throughout the country.

The worst affected, said one of the co-authors of the paper, Professor Mark New of the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town, was the interior of the country.

Limpopo had experienced an increase of 1ºC. In Gauteng it was nearly 2ºC.

Coastal regions had lesser increases. The reason for this, according to New, was the "heat sink" effect, by which the ocean helps to lower temperatures.

"The new normal is the old extreme," he said.

What it also showed, said New, was that water-scarce South Africa was likely to experience the worst of global warming.

"In the interior the effects of global warming are exaggerated," explained New. The reason is there isn't the heat sink effect of water.''

An average global warming rise of 2ºC, according to New, could translate into a 3ºC or 4ºC increase over South Africa.

As temperatures increased there was an increased likelihood of droughts and marginal land would become unprofitable, he said.

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