Rain is no reason for a parade in Cape Town

Rain is falling in Cape Town but don't expect it to fill up the dams.

The South African Weather Service said on Monday that a cut-off low system moving across the Western Cape was unlikely to bring heavy rainfall to the main catchment areas that supply Cape Town.

Monday's rainfall estimate was just 5mm. Tuesday was likely to produce between 5mm and 10mm of rain‚ according to Cape Town weather service forecaster Michael Barnes.

But isolated showers brought relief to some towns elsewhere in the province on Sunday and were expected to continue through to late Tuesday‚ Barnes said. Knysna received the most rain (25mm) during the past 24-hour reporting period‚ with more expected across the Eden district‚ the Overberg and parts of the Breede River Valley.

“For us in Cape Town‚ unfortunately it is not as promising in terms of rainfall amounts‚” Barnes said‚ adding that light rain over the city was caused by a “surface low” associated with the more volatile “cut-off low” phenomenon‚ which typically brought stormy weather and heavy rainfall.

“We also don't want heavy‚ heavy downpours‚ which could cause damage. Hopefully we get the rain storms in the right places‚” he said.

Officials said it would most likely take numerous seasons of above-average rainfall for Cape Town's supply dams to return to normal levels.

There are concerns that Theewaterskloof Dam‚ responsible for almost half of the city's water supply‚ could be transformed into a dust bowl if the drought cycle continues. A dam of that size requires a substantial amount of rain to seep into the sand and saturate the ground before water can build up.