The wind is really starting to blow in from the Atlantic now. Banks of clouds heavy with moisture are blanketing Cape Town and they are likely to dump their load on the Peninsula overnight. Snow will be in the offing to add to the already plentiful supply in the Boland. The forecast for the rest of the week is bleak in the extreme as our normal short, sharp winter makes landfall. The waves have churned the sea into a murky brown mixture, as if a gigantic river of silt has been fed into it from the land and it is not a night to be at sea.
Icy winds are whistling round the house, seeking cracks to seep through and making us draw the bedclothes close around us - no central heating or double glazing in this (usually) sunny land. We have so few cold days that these comforts would be unused for 95% of the year.
The speed and intensity of the the cold front and the next two approaching are said to be unpredictable due to the fact that we are neither in an El Nino nor a La Nina cycle, but something in between. The swells sweeping in from the deep sea are set to rise to double the height they were last week when Dungeons provided such spectacular rides for the big wave surfers. Then they were 5-6m and the prediction is 8-9m.
The only good news is that it will be neap tide over the weekend which should help to keep shoreline damage to a, hopefully, containable level. The houses built on the rocks on the Atlantic Seaboard of Cape Town may be in for a bit of a springclean.
All this is a far cry from my blog of two days ago! But that's Cape Town for you...
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