Cape Town Had Record Rainfall in July as Storms Battered City

(Bloomberg) -- Cape Town had the most most rainfall on record in July as a series of winter storms battered South Africa’s second-biggest city.

The Oranjezicht station, near the city center, recorded 317.6 millimeters (12.5 inches) of rain in the month, the highest since records began in 1960 and two-and-a-half times the July average, the South African Weather Service said. The city’s Kirstenbosch Gardens on the slopes of Table Mountain received more than 500 millimeters, while 619.2 millimeters fell on the nearby town of Franschhoek.

“Beginning in June 2024, rainfall accumulation was notably below normal, consistent with seasonal forecasts that predicted a drier winter period,” the weather service said in a statement on Monday. “However, the landscape changed drastically in July, as a series of cold fronts swept through the region, some of which brought severe weather conditions and substantial rainfall.”

Thousands of shantytown residents in Cape Town were driven from their homes by last month’s storms. They were the latest in of a series of adverse weather events to have hit South Africa, and which scientists say may be attributed to climate change.

Earlier this year, storms wrecked roads and disrupted traffic to the port in the Eastern Cape city of Gqeberha and in 2022 floods in the southeastern city of Durban killed at least 435 people. 

South Africa’s government is in the process of setting up a climate response fund to pay for the strengthening of infrastructure against extreme weather and restore damaged bridges and roads. 

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