It's raining in Cape Town

It's raining in Cape Town

Cape Town has been experiencing drought conditions for months.

Water restrictions have been stringently applied and gardeners are limited to watering their gardens for half an hour once per week.

To make the restrictions even stiffer the authorities have upped the price of our water to make up for the losses they will incur due to consumers using less water.

That can only happen here!

More for less!

Over the past months Cape Town has been praying for rain.

The clouds build up and everybody thinks “ Here comes some relief” and lo and behold the wind changes to the south east and the clouds blow away.

A few hours later we hear on the news that its raining along the Mossel bay coastline and they are having floods.

Last week we had a smidgen of rain over our suburb.

It was just enough to turn the dust on our cars to mud.

The ground is dry and dusty and many people who do not have their own pumps have no gardens left.

Filling swimming pools is also a problem as the heat and the strong south east winds take two inches of water off the top each day.

Its just a vicious circle with the situation getting no better.

What has caused the drought?

Experts say its “ El Nino “ which is a warm current in the Pacific which has an effect on the world's weather patterns.

I just wish it would return to normal so that we can get our normal rainfall.

Hooray! it's good news at last!

Last night a cold front moved in over Cape Town and a reasonably heavy shower fell at about 9.00pm.

Have you experienced the smell of rain on a dry hot earth.

It's GLORIUS!

It makes you feel happy and good inside!

When the rain started to fall that smell permeated the air and anybody who had been longing for rain was over the moon.

Unfortunately we only had a short shower and then the clouds parted and the full moon came out in its full glory.

This morning anybody who had grieved that the clouds had parted would have been more than happy.

They were back and it was raining.

Not hard rain that would cause floods but a steady drizzle that soaks into the ground and enlivens the earth.

When this type of weather sets in in Cape Town it rains for days on end.

Weather forecasters have been saying that its going to clear up but its already lunch time and its still raining.

Lets hope it stays for a whole week and fills our empty dams and rivers and enables our farmers in the drought stricken areas north of Cape Town to plant their crops.

I'm sure there are many happy people today even if many of them got wet going to work this morning.

To find out more about Cape Town read

Turtle Essays edition no 119

online now!

See you all soon!

Geoff Fairman