It is time for residents of the city to bring out the sunscreen, sunglasses and sun hats as the mercury is likely to rise and rise.
The South African Weather Service yesterday warned of more high temperatures ahead as summer arrives.
Forecaster Victoria Nurse told the Pretoria News the temperatures were not unusual as the country was heading into the summer months.
Nurse said city dwellers needed to brace themselves for dry and hot weather throughout the week, although there is a slight possibility of thunderstorms on Sunday.
Nurse said, however, this summer was expected to have above normal high temperatures.
A Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson said: “No El Niño is expected this summer, but even though no heavy rains are expected at the beginning of the season, the SA Weather Service is predicting heavy showers towards the end of the period.”
It said the prediction was good news as last year’s El Niño had brought with it a devastating drought that affected many parts of the country. The department’s weekly report showed a continuous drop in dam levels, indicating that the average level had dropped from 67.6% to 67.1% during last week.
Spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said the Vaal Dam was at 88.5% of its capacity, compared with last week’s 89.2%.
“The low rainfall during the winter has resulted in the water levels in the Vaal River System, consisting of 14 dams and serving mainly Gauteng, Sasol and Eskom, to decrease slightly.
“The Integrated Vaal River System decreased by 0.3 points from 77.8% to 77.5%, but this is not bad as the system was at 53.5% of capacity at the same time last year,” he said.
But even so, Ratau advised residents to save water.