Extreme Weather In KZN South Africa

For anyone living in the Natal Midlands, or to bestarted raining on Tuesday. Most uncharacteristic for
politically correct, the KwaZulu-Natal area of Souththe month of June, those light rains, turned in to
Africa, the last week of June 2007, will besteady, harder rain, right through the night. What
remembered for many years to come. The extremestarted as a welcome relief and the end to the fire
weather conditions experienced in the area, led todangers, now threatened those same people, who
total devastation, to many of the residents, mostlyhad been left homeless. The rainy conditions
farmers and their staff.continued and the highest rainfall ever recorded in
As if the recent strike action by all governmentJune, turned to cold and misty conditions. Farmers
departments, hadn't already caused enough chaos inwere now unable to repair damaged fences and
their lives, with the closure of schools, the disruptionbuildings, animal carcasses that were caught in the
of mid-year exams, the evacuation of hospitals, thefires could not be removed and their staff, were
stoppage of any maintenance work and the desire ofunable to find dry and warm conditions, in their fire
the police and prisons department to join the strikeravaged homes.
action, Mother Nature had the last word.But, Mother Nature was not finished yet. These poor
Friday, Saturday and Sunday were pretty hot, forpeople woke up, the next morning, to snowfalls. The
this time of year and as usual, fire warnings weresnow continued and some of the heaviest falls in
issued. It was normal in the dry conditions, to havehistory, were recorded. It even snowed in
several fires each day and the forestry industry inJohannesburg, for the first time in 26 years! Many
particular, are always on full alert, at this time, everypeople, already left homeless, were now forced to
year.contend with freezing conditions. All of this, in the
What was not expected, was the gale force winds,space of only one week!
that developed and reached utterly devastatingThe area was declared a natural disaster and the
proportions. The winds started on Sunday night, butarmy was called in, to assist with tent towns, feeding
were not unusually strong. They continuedschemes and to facilitate the disposal of the dead
throughout Monday, reaching some the highestanimals. In one incident, eight horses were trapped by
speeds, ever recorded in the area, by Monday night.fences and a bulldozer was, through the terrible heat,
What started as normal fire warnings and alerts, soonunable to get close enough to help them escape.
became emergencies, as huge fires spread atThey all perished in the fire. Apparently the heat was
terrifying speeds. Extra fire crews were brought in,so severe, that the deep root structure, of trees
to help control all these fires and just when the tiredand plants and grass, was so severely affected, that
firefighters thought they had won the battle andit will take several years to mend.
could get some well deserved rest, the heavy windsThere is no doubt, as to who is in charge, in this
started and transformed quiet, smouldering ashes,world and it certainly isn't man! What causes these
into raging infernos, that ran through plantations andextreme conditions and why? Well, the people of the
grasslands, completely out of control. There wereMidlands, will be asking this question, for some time
many stories of threatened families, burnt out housesto come. From hot Summer weather, to extreme
and urgent evacuations. Thousands of Hectares werewinds, to heavy Winter rainfall, to heavy snowfalls
burnt out and families left destitute, particularly in theand then to bitterly cold conditions, all in one week,
Underberg area and in the Karkloof, to Curry's Posthas really taken it's toll on the area, but fortunately
area.no known human deaths, were reported.
Imagine how pleased these people were, when it