Rain and storm for Cpt

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airborne said:
NW blows almost parallel to TM, aka it wouldn't be blowing over TM from Sea Point to Newlands.
The direction of the flames in your latest pic seems to indicate that the wind is now coming from SE, that's assuming you are taking that pic from the Southern Suburbs?
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the 1st pic is from rondies (looking SW), the second pic is from internet and probably from constantia area (looking NNW ). so you can see from that pic looking north wind is blowing left to right, likely from the WNW, ie blowing a WNW towards kbosch from the back table (maybe camps bay)
 
Wow, I missed all that last night, until our cleaner told me the mountain is burning this morning (6:45am)! From Kenilworth is appears to be mostly on Window Buttress, but low clouds are partially blocking the view. Wind direction is likely to be WNW for a prolonged period (not as strong as Sunday morning). No significant rain is forecast. IMO no danger to property at present.

P.S. A lot of the big flames are invasive pine trees that are difficult to clear on the vertical rock faces.
 
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Gordon_R said:
Wow, I missed all that last night, until our cleaner told me the mountain is burning this morning (6:45am)! From Kenilworth is appears to be mostly on Window Buttress, but low clouds are partially blocking the view. Wind direction is likely to be WNW for a prolonged period (not as strong as Sunday morning). No significant rain is forecast. IMO no danger to property at present.

P.S. A lot of the big flames are invasive pine trees that are difficult to clear on the vertical rock faces.
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My son came to tell me at 22h00 last night - it's quite surreal.

Just have to hope that the wind remains relatively calm or we'll have a situation like a couple of years ago where it sweeps down and threatens UCT again
 
Gordon_R said:
P.S. A lot of the big flames are invasive pine trees that are difficult to clear on the vertical rock faces.
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Speaking of which this organisation https://sugarbird.org.za/ has been doing a fair amount of culling Pine (and other species) lower down. When I first saw some of the affected trees I thought it was debarkers targeting pine but turns out it's Sugardbird. They've chopped a lot of smaller pines down but sometimes they just remove a section of bark.
 
saor said:
Speaking of which this organisation https://sugarbird.org.za/ has been doing a fair amount of culling Pine (and other species) lower down. When I first saw some of the affected trees I thought it was debarkers targeting pine but turns out it's Sugardbird. They've chopped a lot of smaller pines down but sometimes they just remove a section of bark.
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The bark removal (ringbarking) removes a section of bark around the whole stem and prevents sugars etc. produced by photosynthesis reaching the roots and causes the tree to die standing. The dieback is noticeable after a few months, larger trees may still take a year or two to die.
 
1714488007642.png

map of burnt areas.

Appropriately, 220 hectares of veld have burnt.
Closures include:
- All hiking trails between Newlands and Constantia Nek
- All trails leading to Maclear’s Beacon and the Back Table
- Tails leading from the area between Camps Bay, Hout Bay, and Orangekloof
- Platteklip George trail leading up to Maclear’s Beacon
 
backstreetboy said:
Rain and storm thread and it's all about fires? :rolleyes:
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1. The fire was started by lightning, so that's definitely storm related.
2. Cape Town doesn't have much 'weather' in summer, so we need something to talk about.
3. Fire is uniquely threatening and destructive in the Cape Metropole, and this is a convenient place to post.
 
Lekker...hope this little bit of rain has sorted that fire out.
 
airborne said:
How is the fire going?
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There were still burning trees late last night on the vertical slopes of Window Fernwood Buttress. The fire did not extend into Newlands Forest, where mostly evergreen trees are fire resistant. The rain this morning has been rather light, and will not extinguish all the burning tree stumps/roots. The main thing is that the wind has dropped significantly, but visibility is poor until the clouds lift.
 
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Freshening northerly/berg wind this morning (Thursday). Sunny and warm for the next two days. Moderate rain on Saturday 4th.

Fire flaring up again, on the steep vertical slopes of Hiddingh Buttress. Inaccesible and no immediate danger.
 
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Friend of mine is a VWS firefighter and he says that fire has been a nightmare to fight. For a start, it's very inaccessible. Secondly, apparently that area has never experienced a burn, which means that the vegetation build up is insane. It's also burning underground. They'll 'put out' a section and it'll pop up from underground 50m away and start again.
 
Agent_Smith said:
Friend of mine is a VWS firefighter and he says that fire has been a nightmare to fight. For a start, it's very inaccessible. Secondly, apparently it has never experienced a burn, which means that the vegetation build up is insane. It's also burning underground. They'll 'put out' a section and it'll pop up from underground 50m away and start again.
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It's deceptive during the day. I was there early this morning still in the dark and you could see burning patches up there but as soon as the sun comes up you see no sign of fire - not even smoke.

edit: Although I can see a bit of smoke now.
 
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saor said:
It's deceptive during the day. I was there early this morning still in the dark and you could see burning patches up there but as soon as the sun comes up you see no sign of fire - not even smoke.

edit: Although I can see a bit of smoke now.
Click to expand...

Wind is crazy now, smoke is building up:
IMG-20240502-WA0000.jpg
 
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