Gallery Update Video

KAROO NEWS & VIDEO - Residents grew hopeful when 25mm of rain, described by one resident as an angel's teardrops on dust, poured down on Graaff-Reinet on 30 December. Thunder and lightning preceded the 16 minutes of welcome rainfall.

On Monday evening 6 January, raindrops started falling on town and farms again, with much-needed rain continuing on Tuesday 7 January. About 23mm of rain was recorded in the horseshoe of Graaff-Reinet after the downpours on Tuesday. 

If forecasts are correct, it seems the past couple of days' rain is only a taste of what is yet to come.

Early December, Lelo Kleinbooi, a forecaster at the Port Elizabeth weather office, painted a dismal rainfall picture for Graaff-Reinet and surrounds, saying below average and normal rainfall is expected.

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However, according to Lululama Nhlapho from the same office, they now predict above normal rainfall for Graaff-Reinet during March, April and May. For the months to come, she could not say whether the above-normal rainfall will continue.

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Dave Stern, the chairperson of the Graaff-Reinet Agri District Union, said the normal rainfall for this area is 400mm per year. "Over the last 75 years, our family measured an average of 412mm per year," he said. The Stern family mainly farms in the Nieu-Bethesda district.

Stern, however, said people must remember that the rivers are heavily forested and overgrown because of the devastating drought. 

A welcome sight. Rain pouring down on Graaff-Reinet.

He was overwhelmed by the prediction of above-normal rainfall, but said people must remember it will take several days, maybe weeks, for the rivers to flow because of all the reeds and bushes.

A thick cloud on top of Spandau Hill.