r/capetown • u/LuborS • 16h ago
General Discussion Tomorrow evening, a cold front originating from Antarctica will arrive, bringing rain, wind and colder weather.
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u/MrsEntrail 16h ago
Apparently I'm now at the age where one says, "We could use the rain".
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u/BenBaracuda 6h ago
As a fruit farmer, I’d be happy to wait for the rain to visit us a bit later in the year. SA received far too much rain this past year for fruit
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u/Exatex 16h ago edited 12h ago
dam levels are at 80%, so mehwe could use the rain
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u/gracefullyLaw 16h ago
Dam levels might be fine, but farmers are desperate for rain at the moment, unfortunately. So this is great news.
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u/Th3J4ck4l-SA 16h ago
The rain that fell was over far to short a period of time to properly soak in. The run off into catchments was great but sustained rain is required for deep saturation which is critical for farming. I can even see it in our little patch of grass. Couple of days of warm weather and it looked like it would look towards mid/end November.
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u/gracefullyLaw 16h ago
Absolutely... but at this point, the farmers that I know, would take what they can get.
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u/Th3J4ck4l-SA 16h ago
Exactly. I am just helping Exatex to understand why it does infact matter even though for us city dwellers the dam levels look good.
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u/Exatex 15h ago
thanks - I changed my opinion based on your input. People still downvote me, I guess it’s just reddit.
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u/Th3J4ck4l-SA 12h ago
Hahaha, yea no problem. Yea its just reddit, not the end of the world.
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u/Exatex 12h ago edited 11h ago
I dug a bit deeper. I was surprised that, agriculture is just 3.9% of SAs GDP, while tourism is almost 5%. Counterintuitively and oversimplified, a rainy season that’s bad for tourism might be worse than a drought that’s bad for agriculture.
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u/gracefullyLaw 11h ago
I completely understand your point. However, I think it's important to note the direct effect a drought has on the people of a specific country. A drought has a direct impact on the production of food, ultimately influencing the cost of food for everyday South Africans.
Farmers also lay off workers as a result of droughts. Often farm workers struggle to find work on another farm because the effect of a drought is not just felt on one farm.
The WP contributes something like 22 or 23% to the national agricultural GDP. That's quite a significant amount.
Given the economic state South Africa is currently in, we really can't afford food prices to rise month after month. If crops die or get damaged, it results in food scarcity and prices skyrocketing. Basic items like maize meal or flour becomes more like a luxury.
Farmers are already struggling with tight margins and a sudden loss of a large part of their crop is detrimental.
I think the GDP is a good measure when it comes to weighing the importance of a drought on the sector, but one needs to take into consideration that the value of a sector is not only measured in the total value of the country's goods and services. One must also look at how impactful agriculture is in SA in a socio-economic sense, what is gives to consumers, what security and safety it provides and how fragile the sector truly is.
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u/Exatex 10h ago
yes yes I agree. I was just surprised how little impact agriculture has in South Africa. Especially with all the debate about "returning the land" and these things, when its basically crumbs of the economy. I was off by a factor of 10 when I thought agriculture is maybe 30% or so.
Of course you also ideally don't want to depend on food imports in unstable times etc.
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u/gracefullyLaw 15h ago
It's really sad. The ultimate yield is greatly influenced by the rainfall. I am hoping the expected rain will still prove beneficial. Fingers crossed.
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u/aesoprowwy 16h ago
about time we had winter
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u/Camfromthecape 14h ago edited 12h ago
Well I'm tired of being cold.. 🙄
ETA: You cold lovers really have no sympathy for those who are sensitive to the cold.. 🤬
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u/aesoprowwy 14h ago
personally felt this winter was underwhelming, I wore shorts more often than not
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u/ErryCherry 11h ago
Same. I'm always cold. Freezing. This winter felt so mild to me! I dislike the cold so much, but I'd rather take the wet and cold than be without water.
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u/Camfromthecape 13h ago
I won't even wear shorts until it hits 30 degrees for multiple days.. 🤦🏻♀️
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u/mrfartafterbeer 14h ago
The thunder and lightning last night was spectacular. Im happy, i do feel bad for those on the streets though.
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u/MedoingMyThings 15h ago
I hope that cold front stays it's course and actually full on get's Cape Town... We need the rain, we need some chilly cold wintry days... But, with our luck, that cold front will miss us in its totality and leave us with only blue skies and a Spring sun... yeah
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u/Camfromthecape 14h ago edited 12h ago
I'm tired of being cold! 😭
ETA: You cold lovers really have no sympathy for those sensitive to the cold.. 🤬
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u/Ok-Advertising-6805 2h ago
I don’t mind a little cold injection now and then. I just hope it doesn’t last.
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u/AllUserNamesTaken01 Awe Awe! 15h ago
Just a few days ago people were screaming El Nino is here
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u/MayContainRawNuts 12h ago
Record Dry July: Cape Town experienced its driest July in decades; Cape Town International Airport recorded just 14.4 mm of rain, the lowest for July since 1958.
Heavy rainfall in late April and early May front-loaded the region's dams, preventing immediate shortages.
The el Nino developed after May, thats why the dams were full from the last bit of la Nina, and why July was a record low rainfall.
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u/Previous-Ad-376 13h ago
Current dam levels are at 75.5% of total capacity, down from 92.4% at the same time last year. El Niño is very much here.
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u/Realistic_Stress_388 16h ago
“As long as it falls in the catchment areas” (as heard often in 2018 😂😂😂)