Rains in small rural towns
Rain received in Bansvlei, outside of Bloemfontein, for the month of December 2023, measured at 147mm.
Gamtoos Water Board in the Eastern Cape, said just over 52mm of rain was received in Kouga, pushing dam levels up to just above 97% full. Another dam in the area, Loerie dam is just above 84%.
In just 5 days, areas such as Deben, in the Northern Cape, had received about 60mm of rain.
Tsunami hits Japan
Japan issued a tsunami warning for its western coast after a powerful earthquake with a magnitude 7.6 hit the Noto Peninsula.
USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, said at 4:10 pm local time in Japan, yesterday, a magnitude of about 7.5 earthquake struck central Japan’s Honshu Island.
The agency also said, USAID and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii, continue to monitor the situation.
Loadshedding
Loadshedding stage level 2 is back on the cards, even after Eskom announced news of Unit 5 of the Kusile Power Plant.
The connection of Kusile will add about 800 Megawatts to the grid.
But yesterday, the power utility, said there is “intensified maintenance underway to improve fleet maintenance.
The setback is as a result of 3 generating units, which have not come back online. They amount to a loss of 2, 148 MW.
Despite this, Eskom also said unplanned outages, amount to about 16, 231 MW, against a peak demand tonight, expected at 23, 011 MW.
Picture: Great Karoo, via Reenval SA.