An "intense" weather system could bring as much as 80mm of rain to mountainous areas in the Western Cape.
But according to Michael Barnes of the South African weather service's Cape Town weather office the system does not mean an end to the dry weather currently being experienced in the southern and western parts of the country.
An intense cold front will make landfall late on Tuesday evening. Rainfall expected over the western parts of the Western Cape and Northern Cape is expected to be between 20 and 40mm in general with heavy rainfall exceeding 50mm or more expected in the mountainous areas.
"Areas expecting the most rain are the western mountainous areas of the Western Cape which could receive up to 80-90mm throughout Wednesday. Rainfall should clear during Thursday morning‚" he said.
He said the Western Cape will need "more than one" season of normal to above normal rainfall to get dam levels up to what they should be.
Barnes said that the seasonal forecaster for the south-western Cape is "very uncertain for this winter" making it almost impossible to predict whether there would be normal rainfall.
"Above normal‚ normal and below normal rainfall scenarios are all possible for this winter. Remember we also had a very dry autumn which doesn’t help‚" he said.
