News24 | Saturday’s weather: Heavy rain, damaging winds, hail and excessive lightning in 5 provinces

Severe thunderstorms with heavy downpours, strong damaging winds, hail and excessive lightning are expected in at least five provinces.

Gallo images/ Gie Burger/Jaco Marais

Severe thunderstorms with heavy downpours, strong damaging winds, hail and excessive lightning are expected over several provinces, according to the South African Weather Service (SAWS).

Impact-based warnings

Yellow level 2 warning for severe thunderstorms:

Localised flooding of susceptible roads, low-lying areas and bridges expected.

Localised damage to settlements and infrastructure possible.

Heavy downpours, strong damaging winds, hail and excessive lightning expected.

Affected areas: Northern Cape, northern parts of the Western Cape, western parts of the Free State, extreme western parts of the North West, and extreme southern parts of KwaZulu-Natal in the evening.

In the SAWS’s colour-coded weather warning system, yellow indicates a moderate risk of impact that requires caution and awareness, while orange indicates that a higher-risk impact is expected, requiring increased attention and preparation.

The SAWS uses the numbers to indicate the likelihood of weather-related impacts. Levels 2 and 6 are high, level 5 is medium, and levels 4 and 8 are low.

Scattered to widespread showers and thunderstorms are expected across parts of the central and western interior of South Africa from today through Sunday morning. pic.twitter.com/bubU0Cy50p

— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) September 25, 2026

The weather in your province

Gauteng: Partly cloudy and warm with isolated showers and thundershowers in the south-west.

Pretoria: 14–28°

Johannesburg: 13–26°

Vereeniging: 12–27°

Mpumalanga: Cloudy with fog patches along the escarpment in the morning, otherwise partly cloudy and warm but hot over the Lowveld. Isolated showers and thundershowers can be expected along the escarpment in the afternoon.

Mbombela: 19–28°

Ermelo: 13–28°

Emalahleni: 15–27°

Standerton: 14–27°

Skukuza: 22–33°

Limpopo: Cloudy in the east at first, with morning fog patches in the central parts, otherwise fine and warm to hot.

Polokwane: 18–28°

Phalaborwa: 20–31°

Tzaneen: 19–30°

Musina: 21–31°

Lephalale: 21–34°

Mokopane: 19–33°

North West: Partly cloudy, windy and warm with isolated showers and thundershowers but scattered in the west.

Klerksdorp: 14–29°

Potchefstroom: 14–28°

Mahikeng: 15–30°

Rustenburg: 15–31°

Vryburg: 14–30°

Free State: Partly cloudy, windy and cool to warm with isolated to scattered showers and thundershowers over the east to the central parts but widespread in the south.

Bloemfontein: 14–25°

Welkom: 15–28°

Bethlehem: 10–25°

Northern Cape: Cloudy, windy and warm with scattered showers and thundershowers but widespread in the west and south.

The wind along the coast will be light to moderate south-easterly in the south at first and in the evening, otherwise fresh to strong north-westerly.

Upington: 17–25°

Kimberley: 13–24°

De Aar: 14–21°

Alexander Bay: 13–22°

Springbok: 12–14°

Calvinia: 14–20°

Sutherland: 9–17°

Western Cape: Cloudy and warm, but cool in places with widespread showers and thundershowers over the West Coast and the Central Karoo, otherwise scattered.

The wind along the coast will be fresh south-easterly in the west becoming moderate westerly by afternoon, otherwise moderate south-westerly.

Cape Town: 14–20°

Vredendal: 16–22°

Riversdale: 15–19°

George: 15–19°

Worcester: 16–20°

Beaufort West: 17–21°

Oudtshoorn: 18–22°

Western half of the Eastern Cape: Cloudy, windy, and cool with widespread showers and thundershowers.

The wind along the coast will be moderate to fresh south-westerly, reaching strong in places.

Gqeberha: 17–20°

Makhanda: 17–19°

Nxuba: 15–22°

Robert Sobukwe Town: 17–21°

Ku Gompo City: 18–21°

Eastern half of the Eastern Cape: Partly cloudy in places, otherwise cloudy and warm with scattered showers and thundershowers, but widespread in the west where it will be cool and windy.

The wind along the coast will be moderate to fresh south-westerly.

Port St Johns: 19–24°

Mthatha: 16–25°

Komani: 16–23°

Qonce: 16–22°

KwaZulu-Natal: Morning fog patches over the interior, otherwise partly cloudy and cool to warm with scattered showers and thundershowers in the extreme south, otherwise isolated except in the north-east.

The wind along the coast will be light to moderate southerly to south-westerly in the south in the morning and evening, otherwise moderate to fresh northerly to north-easterly.

Durban: 21–25°

Richard’s Bay: 20–30°

Pietermaritzburg: 16–30°

Ladysmith: 15–28°

*This weather report was written with the support of Toqan AI.