The South African Weather Service says a significant amount of rain has fallen in drought-hit Karoo towns overnight, with predictions of more rain on its way on Wednesday.
Rain also fell in areas of the Garden Route and Little Karoo.
While the danger of flash flooding has been averted in the Karoo, the weather office says there’s a strong likelihood of thunderstorms towards Wednesday afternoon.
The rain was also welcomed in dry areas of the Eastern Cape such as Aberdeen and Graaff Reinet.
Eastern Cape farmers have welcomed the rain that fell in many parts of the province over the last 48 hours.
The drought-stricken areas of Graaff-Reinet and Adelaide received some encouraging rainfalls.
Seventy mm of rain was recorded in the Adelaide -Fort Beaufort area, and 26mm in Graaff-Reinet.
However, Eastern Cape Agriculture president, Dougie Stern, says any rain is welcome, but a follow-up rain is needed in order to end the drought in the province.
“When you talk drought of this magnitude, 20mm or 30mm is not going to give you any sort of relief. You need to follow up on rain that is very important. With this current rain, we would need more in the next two weeks’ time of another 20mm. Only then will we start to talk about relief. It is important to understand that one rain won’t change the situation dramatically,” says Stern.
