Kouga Municipality
The Eastern Cape enjoyed some good follow up rain on Thursday night, into Friday, bringing the total for the week in parts of Port Elizabeth to more than 85 mm.
Garth Sampson at the PE Branch of the SA Weather Service reports that 59.6 mm of rain had been measured at the airport since Tuesday and a whopping 86.2 mm at 3rd Avenue Dip in Newton Park.
The catchment area of the Langkloof received between 40 mm and 86 mm for the same period.
Its hoped this will have some positive impact in terms of run-off into the main supply dams over the next few days.
Sampson says, however, that the smaller farm dams would have to fill up first and the overflow would then run to the supply dams.
Additionally, when the snow melts, there should be some additional flow, although small.
According to figures released by the municipality on Friday morning, the average combined capacity of Nelson Mandela Bay’s four main supply dams is currently 19.66%
A conservative estimate is that next week’s reading should be above 20%
Sampson says the total rainfall for Port Elizabeth for the month of May is just short of 90 mm, which is well above the norm, as predicted by the seasonal forecast.
The rain has moved through the region now and Sampson says no major rain can be expected in the next week.
Other centres enjoying good falls since Tuesday are St Albans at 66 mm, Kareedouw in the heart of the catchment area at 86 mm, and Cape St Francis with 58 mm.
Further down the coast, Plettenberg Bay received 60 mm, George 28 and Mossel Bay 35.
