Rains soak drought-stricken Northern Cape following declaration of disaster area, South Africa

Rains continued drenching Northern Cape on Wednesday, February 12, 2020– a month after officials declared the South African province a disaster area due to drought.

Social media was flooded with images and videos of once-dry areas, getting their much-needed rains, especially Graaff-Reinet.

Over the past nine years, the severe lack of rain in the town caused farms to dry up, killing vegetation. This also resulted in a lack of food for livestock in which thousands of animals died from starvation.

Northern Cape Premier Zamani Saul declared the drought-stricken province a disaster area on January 10. The crippling situation in the province was noted in May 2019 in an early warning report as summer rains were delayed.

In a satellite image posted by the South Africa Weather Service on February 12, thunderstorms were seen in the Northern Cape. However, they stated that "very hot weather [is] still present over the Western Cape."

Although more rains are being observed, the weather bureau also placed a warning for extremely high fire danger conditions over the western interior of the Northern Cape, in effect on Thursday, February 13.

Meanwhile, in the southeast, there will be "morning fog along the coast where it will be cool, otherwise partly cloudy," the agency wrote.

"The wind along the coast will be light north-westerly, becoming moderate south-westerly in the afternoon."

Featured image credit: Lianda Beyers Cronje