Rain over Johannesburg

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Rains expected to clear by weekend THE next few days will continue to be wet, but the weather is expected to clear by the weekend, says the SA Weather Service. January 9, 2006 By Buhle Makabane JOBURG has had its fair share of rain since mid-December, but the clouds are expected to start clearing on Thursday, 12 January. The heavy rains come after a long dry spell; the last such rains were in April last year when 28 millimetres were recorded after a severe hailstorm. Following that, a short storm was experienced in May 2005, watering gardens with only a millimetre of rain. This season's rains were caused by a tropical cyclone that moved from the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean, through the Limpopo channel, and on to Joburg, says Siyabonga Mthethwa, a forecaster at the South African Weather Service. A tropical cyclone, or hurricane, is an intense cyclonic storm consisting of an organised mass of thunderstorms that develops over the warm tropical oceans. "Usually these cyclones happen between January, February and March," Mthethwa says. Widespread showers accompanied by isolated heavy falls are expected over the next two days and then it will be back to normal and no rain is expected over the weekend, according to Mthethwa. Over the weekend of 7 and 8 January, 16,8 millimetres of rain were recorded in Joburg; 30 millimetres were recorded for the period Sunday, 8 to Monday, 9 January. According to Wayne Minnaar, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department's spokesperson, 12 rain-related accidents were reported on Monday morning. At the weekend a number of cases were reported, from car accidents to drownings and flooded shacks, Minnaar says. He gave a word of advice to drivers: "They must reduce speed, increase the following distance and switch on their headlights because the vapour from the car causes poor visibility." Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za