Nelson Mandela Bay is heading for its driest August on record with only 2.2 mm of rain having being measured so far this month.
Garth Sampson at the PE branch of the SA Weather Service says the last time August had seen so little rain was way back in 1985 when a miserly 4.7 mm of rain was measured.
That was the driest August-month for Port Elizabeth since the year 1900 and came in the midst of a pro-longed 14-year drought which set-in after the floods of 1981.
Sampson says current trends are also pointing towards annual rainfall for the Metro again being under under 500 mm. "If we have normal rainfall for the rest of the year, the total rainfall for the four years from 2016 to 2019 will be under 500 mm. This will be the first time that under 500 mm has been recorded in four consecutive years since 1900."
According to figures released by the municipality on Monday, the average level of Nelson Mandela Bay's main supply dams has now dipped below 42% to 41.96% of combined capacity.
Sampson says its a worry as the traditional rainy season is nearly over. "We always rely on one big rain to get inflow into those dams and historically we find that it needs to be a good fall of 50 mm-plus. That usually comes with cut-off low pressure systems which don't usually occur so frequently in the summer months. In a nutshell, if we don't get any good rainfall by the end of September the chances decrease drastically towards the summer and the first change of that happening again would be March/April next year."
Sampson said it highlighted once again the critical importance of taking all necessary steps and precautions to conserve water, and avoid the crisis situation the Metro found itself in this time last year when dam levels stood at just 18% before the big rains of early September.
