weather extremesCape Town and the surrounding western coastal belt is the only winter rainfall region in southern Africa. The majority of southern Africa gets rainfall primarily in summer.- long, narrow channels in the air along which enormous amounts of water are transported. They tend to cause extreme rain when they hit mountains.
What is an atmospheric river? With flooding and mudslides in California, a hydrologist explains the good and bad of these storms and how they're changing However, the Cape Town region can also experience extreme storms outside winter. This happens with some of Cape Town's storms that are classified asBecause Cape Town is highly dependent on rain for its water supplies, heavy rains from cut-off lows can also be useful inin isolated parts of the Western Cape were the heaviest since at least 1979, leading to flooded roads and landslides. This was linked to a cut-off low.What does the research say?in many parts of the world.
It would be understandable to think that increasing droughts mean that flooding decreases. However, over the Mediterranean region, whose climate is broadly similar to Cape Town's, climate change is linked to an increased risk of both drought and flooding. This was the conclusion of an attribution study after Storm Daniel causedMore research on the link between Cape Town's storms and climate change is urgently needed. We know that cut-off lows are a major severe weather risk in the area.
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