Another tornado reported near Ulundi, SAWS issues more severe storm warnings

KwaZulu-Natal is fast becoming the tornado capital of South Africa, after the second tornado of the weekend was reported in Ulundi on Saturday.

Images published by Twitter user @sakhilemagalela, and retweeted by the South African Weather Service, shows the whirlwind spinning near eDlebe Village, near the former provincial capital.

Already experiencing this at Ulundi, at eDlebe Village pic.twitter.com/KTkNH1Cmyv

— Azania WaAfrika (@sakhilemagalela) November 23, 2019

The report comes just hours after SAWS issued a severe storm alert for those near Ulundi.

“Please note that this storm could lead to damaging winds and large hail. It is moving south-east. Warning has been issued,” it tweeted around 4pm SAST.

Four tornados in less than two weeks

A tornado is defined by SAWS as a “rotating column of air extending from the cloud base of a cumuliform cloud and is in contact with the ground”.

These vortices can result in extensive damages and loss of life,” SAWS warned in an earlier statement.

This is the fourth such report of a tornado in KwaZulu-Natal since the month began.

On 13 November, tornadoes near Bergville and New Hanover were reported.

Earlier on Saturday, SAWS also confirmed that another had occurred close to Utrecht near Newcastle on Friday night.

A number of weather warnings and watches have been issued by SAWS on Saturday, covering a vast swathe of KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, southern Limpopo and Gauteng.

Follow the South African Weather Service

Weather is fickle and subject to change, so we’d recommend following SAWS on its official Twitter account, especially for severe thunderstorm updates.

And be sure to bookmark its warnings portal too, where it regularly updates the advisories and more serious information on the daily.

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Feature image: screenshot, @SAWeatherServic and @sakhilemagalela via Twitter