The SA Weather Service (Saws) has announced that the searing weekend temperatures in the Western Cape and Northern Cape at the weekend will not be counted as records due to locally induced heat around two weather stations.
Temperatures climbed to 45.2°C in Cape Town and 45.9°C in Robertson on Saturday and Sunday as the Western Cape experienced a heatwave.
However, the weather service said that after investigations, environmental factors at sites around the automatic weather station (AWS) equipment revealed that locally induced heat influenced the temperature readings of both stations.
“For this reason, these values will not be accepted into the Saws climate database as new maximum temperature records for the month of January. The highest recorded maximum temperature in January for Cape Town city therefore remains 39.1°C (measured on January 25 2007), while for all other months the highest maximum temperature of 42.4°C was measured on March 3 2015,” it said.
Saws revealed that the highest minimum temperature for January yet recorded, 22.8°C, was captured in Alexander Bay, in the Northern Cape, on Sunday. This beat the previous record of 22.5°C set in January 1963.
“While heatwave conditions were experienced over large parts of the Western Cape, slightly cooler conditions can be expected over the next couple of days, with light rain possible along the Garden Route at times.”
TimesLIVE
Record-breaking weekend Cape temperatures will not be counted
The SA Weather Service (Saws) has announced that the searing weekend temperatures in the Western Cape and Northern Cape at the weekend will not be counted as records due to locally induced heat around two weather stations.
Temperatures climbed to 45.2°C in Cape Town and 45.9°C in Robertson on Saturday and Sunday as the Western Cape experienced a heatwave.
However, the weather service said that after investigations, environmental factors at sites around the automatic weather station (AWS) equipment revealed that locally induced heat influenced the temperature readings of both stations.
“For this reason, these values will not be accepted into the Saws climate database as new maximum temperature records for the month of January. The highest recorded maximum temperature in January for Cape Town city therefore remains 39.1°C (measured on January 25 2007), while for all other months the highest maximum temperature of 42.4°C was measured on March 3 2015,” it said.
Saws revealed that the highest minimum temperature for January yet recorded, 22.8°C, was captured in Alexander Bay, in the Northern Cape, on Sunday. This beat the previous record of 22.5°C set in January 1963.
“While heatwave conditions were experienced over large parts of the Western Cape, slightly cooler conditions can be expected over the next couple of days, with light rain possible along the Garden Route at times.”
TimesLIVE
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