The Western Cape has experienced heat wave conditions over the past weekend (21-23 January) and this weekend is expected very much to be the same.
Heat-wave conditions are characterised by prolonged periods (at least three consecutive days or more) of temperatures (min/max) exceeding the average of the hottest month by 5°C or more. The Cape is still in the summer season, so hot conditions are normal during this time of the year.
While it became very hot over the past weekend in Cape Town, the South African Weather Service (Saws) investigated the measurements of maximum recorded temperatures in Cape Town and Robertson of 45,2°C and 45,9°C on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Due to certain environmental factors at these sites around the Automatic Weather Station (Aws) equipment, Saws can confirm that these factors could have resulted in locally induced heat, which 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-ever recorded maximum temperature in January for Cape Town city therefore remains at 39,1°C (measured on 25/01/2007), while for all other months, the highest maximum temperature of 42,4°C was measured on 3 March 2015.
Saws can confirm that a new record breaking minimum temperature was measured on Sunday morning, 23 January 2022 (Table 1) in Alexander Bay.
