The South African Weather Service (Saws) has issued alerts for severe thunderstorms, heavy rain and damaging winds for parts of the country on Wednesday.

Saws predicted severe thunderstorms, torrential rain and hail for the western bushveld area of Limpopo and eastern parts of Mpumalanga.

According to the Saws, there are damaging winds expected over the southern interior of Namakwa District Municipality of the Northern Cape, as well as the Breede Valley Local Municipality and Central Karoo District Municipality of the Western Cape. This is likely to lead to driving difficulties for trucks.

“Damaging waves resulting in difficulty in navigation at sea for small vessels and personal water crafts are expected between Table Bay and Plettenberg Bay in the Western Cape, subsiding from the evening,” warned Saws.

Meanwhile, it is going to be fine in the south-west parts of the country, otherwise partly cloudy and warm to hot, with extremely hot temperatures predicted in the north.

The forecaster further warned of heatwave conditions with persistently high temperatures over central and eastern parts of Free State, the North-West province, the north-eastern parts of Northern Cape, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and the western parts the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, expected to last until Friday.

IOL