Weather

Review

The onset of the summer rainfall season resulted in most parts of the industry receiving significant rainfall from October to December 2024. The rainfed areas in KwaZulu-Natal recorded near normal rainfall in October and November while December rainfall was below normal except for Zululand where December rainfall was normal (Figure 1). The irrigated Mpumalanga region recorded below normal rainfall over the review period.

All the main irrigation water sources remained stable.

Figure 1: Regional average monthly total rainfall for August to December 2024 compared to the corresponding long-term means (LTM).

Outlook

The current weak La Niña conditions of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation are expected to continue through to the end of the 2024/25 summer season, with a likely transition to neutral conditions during autumn 2025.

The South African Weather Services, the International Research Institute for Climate and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts all predict normal rainfall in the eastern parts of the country for the remainder of the 2024/25 summer season.

Please visit the SASRI WeatherWeb for the latest industry weather reports and links to up-to-date seasonal climate forecasts.