I’ve been involved with the SARCOF process for a while, and this year I joined the event in Lusaka. For the uninitiated: SARCOF—the Southern African Regional Climate Outlook Forum—is a biannual gathering where forecasters from 16 SADC countries come together to produce a regional rainfall forecast for the upcoming rainy season. I attended partly because… Read more »
Picture this: a lively mix of creative minds, dynamic engagements, and knowledge-sharing, converging at CASCADE’s first Learning Lab. On the 9th of May, the Pamuzinda Safari Lodge venue became a space for collaboration and creativity. Being based at a Safari Lodge made the experience even more special. It was a warm, tranquil day with the… Read more »
Purpose of this piece In this short companion blog, a link is provided to an article in The Conversation, in which Sabina and I give a short, broad overview of our current understanding of storms affecting Cape Town and surrounding areas and how they may be affected by climate change. In this blog, we provide… Read more »
By Sabina Abba Omar & Stefaan Conradie A major cut-off low event is currently wrecking havoc across large parts of South Africa, most notably around Kariega. This follows another severe cut-off low storm that hit the Western Cape between 6 and 9 April 2024 after a series of destructive wind and rain storms between June… Read more »
09 APRIL 2024 | PHOTO BY ROBYN WALKER. READ TIME 3 mins. The intersection of climate variability, extremes, and long-term change with rapid urbanisation, extensive informality, multi-level governance challenges, and resource constraints, constitutes a critical human health challenge in African cities. Yet a comprehensive and systemic understanding of the intersection of climate hazards and urban health risks is… Read more »
30 NOVEMBER 2023 | STORY ALACIA ARMSTRONG. PHOTOS ROBYN WALKER. Read time 4 min. The Cascading Climate and Health Risks in African Cities (CASCADE) consortium was officially launched recently with a focused mission: to advance the understanding of critical urban health challenges faced by African cities and point towards practical and effective interventions. Led by Dr Chris Jack and Professor Bruce… Read more »
In early April, we posted a preliminary assessment of the remarkable series of rainfall events that affected the south-western Cape region from mid-February to late March. That turned out to be just the start of an extraordinarily long and intense rainfall season for the Winter Rainfall Zone. Arguably the most severe storm of the season… Read more »
The short course on navigating climate risk is a CSAG annual winter tradition. It was therefore a huge disappointment that we were unable to present a course in 2022, and I was determined to make sure that 2023’s course was a success! After a grueling selection process, 17 participants were invited to join us for… Read more »
Summary An initial look at preliminary March 2023 rainfall data for Table Mountain suggests it was the wettest March in the instrumental record of the “Mountain in the Sea”, going back as far as 1893! This appears to have been mostly the result of four cut-off low systems forming along the west coast during the… Read more »