Although Bob Dylan was making a philosophical statement with the words of his songBlowin’ in the Wind, it also holds its ground in a meteorological sense. The high incidence of unseasonal easterly winds ruined many a beach day for holidaymakers and tourists in the Bay and surrounds during the festive period. This is most especially for those that thought they would escape the consistent rain of their hometowns in Gauteng and enjoy some idyllic weather along our coastal belt.
Nelson Mandela Bay lived up to its reputation as being the “Windy City” once again during December 2025. Although average wind speeds were not above normal, it was the easterly component that led everybody, including myself, to believe that this December’s wind was exceptionally out of the ordinary. The easterly component (between northeasterly and southeasterly) was in fact a whopping 10% above the norm of 38% at 48% of the time during December.
In an 11-day period between December 20-31, there was a westerly component for only one and a half days. Incidentally, November 1997 held the all-time highest average wind speed record in the Bay. This record did not stand long, as December 1997 took the honours as the windiest month on record, a record that has not been broken and hopefully never will be.
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At that time, there were constant westerly winds, often reaching gale force for days on end. Tourism in the metro took a serious blow after that event. It is interesting to note that for the following five years, bar one, all annual rainfall totals were above 600mm in Gqeberha.
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