WEATHER GURU | Welcome rains but many farmers still in dire straits

How wonderful it was to be woken up to the sound of the rain last week. I thought I was dreaming until I got up and heard the awesome sound of water running into my tanks. A much better sound than those frightening lightning claps that we have had in recent times, though a friend said he loved the sound of thunder growing up in Gauteng.

I suppose that’s what makes life interesting, differing likes and tastes. While most residents of Nelson Mandela Bay and surrounds, as well as many farmers were rejoicing, there were many video clips doing the rounds of damage and fatalities among livestock. As alluded to in last week’s column, it is the most rain measured since October, which makes it almost four months without noticeable rain.

Between October 26 and these recent rains, less than 15mm was measured at the city’s airport. Our already hard-hit farmers, having had a very dry summer, now also had to deal with the cost of damage to infrastructure, as some farm dams burst their banks. Add to that the current out-of-control foot-and-mouth disease, and now also losing livestock due to drownings. I do and always will maintain that our South African farmers are cut from a different type of cloth.