If you thought your wet shoes and mangled umbrella was kak – then just be grateful that you’re not the Kalk Bay lighthouse. Talk about a swak deal. But the lighthouse, in all it’s stature, is not the only thing that was slapped by the storms which swept South Africa this week. From piers, to shops, to boardwalks and bridges – the rising swell and daggers of rain drops have caused close to catastrophic destruction. And in the true spirit of catastrophe, we trawled social media to find some of the most dramatic pictures of it.
The reason for the caramel water and un-admitted thrill of an apocalypse? A cut-off low seafarers. A cut-off low. Although this may sound like a new range of Mr. Price jeans you’ll never buy, this is in fact slightly more complex…
SA Oceanographer, Ross Blamey, gives us the low down on the sh*t-storm in jargon we can digest:
“We have had a cut-off low positioned in the mid-to upper levels over the western parts of South Africa. Because this system is separated from the westerlies that lie to the south of the country (hence the name cut-off) it remains stationary for a few days and therefore has more influence on our weather compared to that of a passing cold front.”
There you have it. Here you can see it. (Click images for full size).
*Images may have been edited slightly for the purpose of this gallery #please-don’t-hate-us