Cape Town Archives

Cape Town dams 23% full, CoCT ponders ‘reverse osmosis, desalination’ plants
By Andy Walker: Editor on 20 June, 2017
The good news continues this week, Cape Town. Dam levels have increased for the second week in a row, signalling the start of winter... albeit in the middle of winter. The largest three dams in the system experienced sizeable gains. The Theewaterskloof Dam is now 17.3% full, up by 2% week-over-week. The Berg River Dam is also up by 2% to 34.2%. The Voelvlei Dam is up by 1.4% to 18%. Both Steenbras dams saw a slight increase in its storage, while Wemmershoek remained steady. Overall, Cape Town's dams are now a combined 23.1% full, up from 21.2% last week. The City of Cape...
Cape Town dam levels rise after storm, but nowhere near enough
By Andy Walker: Editor on 14 June, 2017
Great news, Cape Town. Your major dam levels have finally seen an increase week-over-week, albeit a tiny one. After Wednesday's punchy cold front and the weekend's steady rainfall experienced across the city, water levels in all six major dams have seen a slight buff. The Theewaterskloof Dam for instance -- the city's biggest reservoir -- is now at 15.3% capacity, up from last week's 13.6%. The Berg River Dam is up from 30.4% to 32.2%. Additionally, the Voelvlei Dam's level showed an increase too, but only by 0.4% to 16.6%. Image: City of Cape Town Weekly Water Dashboard report, 12 June 2017 Both Steenbras reservoirs...

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Cape Town Railway Station trends on Twitter after riot, train fire
By Andy Walker: Editor on 12 June, 2017
Update #2, 10.40pm: Cape Town's Metrorail service again took to Twitter suggesting that it cannot at present confirm how the train fire will affect Tuesday's commute. "Too early to predict service changes. MorningPeak service advisory at 04:30 tomorrow morning," it wrote. Too early to predict service changes. MorningPeak service advisory at 04:30 tomorrow morning — Metrorail W/Cape (@CapeTownTrains) June 12, 2017 Update #1, 10pm: Cape Town's Metrorail service has now issued an update via the Metrorail Western Cape Twitter account. "Problems with Metrorail electrical power feeds were responsible for major delays experienced this afternoon," reads the statement. "Teams if technicians are currently working across the...
Winter in the Western Cape: Instagram laced with weekend snow pictures
By Staff Reporter on 12 June, 2017
Last week's cold front brought some extreme weather to South Africa's Western Cape. Along with driving rain and gale-force winds in Cape Town, it also drove hot berg winds to the Garden Route, which fuelled the catastrophic Knysna fire. While the latter is now largely under control, there was another weather phenomenon that some took the time to capture with their smartphones and upload online -- snow. People are uploading their weekend snow adventure pictures in the Western Cape on Instagram The Western Cape's higher peaks this weekend -- including the Matroosberg, the Hottentots-Holland and the Hex River Mountains -- were laced...
YouTube videos capture devastation of Cape Town storm, Knysna fire
By Staff Reporter on 9 June, 2017
We use the likes of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook extensively when covering stories across South Africa, but when the Cape Town storm rolled across the peninsula this week, citizens took to YouTube to upload their clips. Although some of the videos were hoaxes, clearly edited to incite viral reactions from those all too eager to hit like and retweet buttons, other videos were genuine. And genuinely scary. At the time of writing, nine of the top 12 trending videos on YouTube in South Africa is related to the Cape Town storm or Knysna fires. Read more: Memeburn's in-depth coverage of the #CapeStorm and...
Weekly Round Up Podcast #109: Cape storm, Knysna fire & WWDC
By Julia Breakey on 8 June, 2017
Welcome to Weekly Round Up, our podcast discussing the latest tech trends, innovation and news from the last few days. This week, Hadlee Simons hosts Andy Walker, Stephen Timm and Matthew Alexander in studio. The team opens the floor with a discussion on the Cape Storm that rocked the Mother City this week. Along with the storm came the spreading of fake photos (either photoshopped or pulled from other natural disasters) and Andy Walker talks us through how to differentiate between the truth and the lies. Hadlee then talks about Haven Night Shelter's Buy A Bed campaign that allows people to donate R60...
#KnysnaFire: locals turn to Facebook, WhatsApp for help
By Andy Walker: Editor on 8 June, 2017
Social media, for all its pitfalls and swathe of untruths, is seemingly the best way to keep abreast of new information emanating from a disaster. Take the #CapeStorm and more recently the #KnysnaFire for instance. Read more: Memeburn's ongoing coverage for the Cape Town storm and Knysna Fire The fire, which ravaged areas around the town of 70 000 people, is now heading towards Plettenberg Bay, the Eden District Municipality announced on a Facebook post Thursday morning. "Knysna looks much better, but our new high risk area would be the Bitou area. Currently people in Harkerville , portion of Kranshoek and by...
Cape Town brands look to profit off hashtags #CapeStorm and #KnysnaFire
By Julia Breakey on 8 June, 2017
With every tragedy comes an outpouring of love and support from social media. Thoughts, prayers and tangible help are all offered to those in need. But with the good comes the bad too, and businesses and social media opportunists often look to cash in on destruction with profit and likes. These users take a hashtag, which others can view for information on events or for calls to action, and use it for their own personal gain, disregarding lives lost or homes destroyed. Take, for instance, this Instagram post using the topical #CapeStorm. Happy Thursday!!! Hope you have a good one and that...
Knysna Fire: another Western Cape disaster trends on social media
By Staff Reporter on 7 June, 2017
Knysna, a town situated on the Garden Route approximately 420km east of Cape Town, is battling a huge blaze sweeping across dense indigenous forest. The fire escalated in the early hours of Wednesday, largely fueled by gale force winds ahead of Cape Town's current storm system. Read more: Memeburn's ongoing coverage of Cape Town's winter storm As a result of the blaze, national roads have been closed with three deaths also reported in the region. Knysna's Eden District Municipality declared that "various fires are out of control" in a statement on Wednesday. While Twitter for much of today featured #CapeStorm as the top trending...
Facebook activates Safety Check for Cape Town’s storm-affected
By Andy Walker: Editor on 7 June, 2017
Facebook has activated its Safety Check feature for those in Cape Town following a severe cold front that lashed the city Tuesday evening through Wednesday. It's an unprecedented event for the social network in Cape Town. Facebook has used the feature a number of times since launch, but more recently during the 22 May Manchester suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert which killed 22 people. But while some people are wondering why Facebook has activated the feature for the city, the justification is pretty clear. The City has announced that five people have died as a result of the storm, which...
Tornadoes and Katrina: the totally fake news from Cape Town’s storm
By Andy Walker: Editor on 7 June, 2017
If you're reading this piece, good for you. It means that you're actively searching for the truth among the steaming pile of manure that is "fact" on social media. There have been a number of fake images and videos circulating on social media during the intense cold front currently lashing Cape Town and surrounds. Thanks to swelling public interactions, they've also gone viral. And that's not a good thing. Considering the severity of the storm -- the fact that people are now homeless in the likes of Imizamo Yethu, Khayelitsha and Mfuleni -- should be more than enough reason for people...

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Cape Town storm: what’s running, delayed or cancelled in the city
By Staff Reporter on 7 June, 2017
You've probably heard the numerous warnings on social media about the weather set to rock Cape Town on Wednesday, but if you haven't, it's going to rain. More than 50mm is expected in certain areas within 24 hours, with wind gusts pushing 90km/h in some parts of the peninsula too. Cape Town's winter storm coverage: Alerts ring across Twitter as Cape Town’s Wednesday storm bears closer Track Cape Town’s storm in realtime with these 3 free resources #StormHelen: Twitter names Cape Town's storm after Helen Zille Naturally, some people are going to work from home, and thanks to the internet that's possible in 2017. Others...

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Everyone in Cape Town is a closet meteorologist, Facebook thread reveals
By Staff Reporter on 7 June, 2017
Cape Town's citizens just love talking about the weather, and that's no more apparent than in this Facebook comment thread. Popular snow forecast and monitoring site Snow Report's Facebook page is laced with comments about Cape Town's current winter storm after it asked people to send in reports of the current conditions of their suburb. And Facebook users naturally obliged. Read more: Memeburn's ongoing coverage of Cape Town's winter storm The post received around 700 comments to date, with a further 200 shares and 570 reactions, with some users also posting images and videos of their surrounds during the storm. Cape Town's winter storm...

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#StormHelen: Twitter names Cape Town’s storm after Helen Zille
By Andy Walker: Editor on 6 June, 2017
It's common practice for the United States' National Hurricane Centre to give storms common names, but not cold fronts. Cape Town seems to think that this should change. As Wednesday's #MotherOfAllStorms draws ever closer towards South Africa, Cape Town believes that the weather system should be named after the premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille. Alert: An extreme storm is coming tonght and tomorrow across WCape. I will post regular updates. Pls prepare for v strong wind and rain. — Helen Zille (@helenzille) June 6, 2017 After the above tweet was posted, #StormHelen began trending across South Africa around 4pm Tuesday, just...

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Track Cape Town’s storm in realtime with these 3 free resources
By Andy Walker: Editor on 6 June, 2017
You might've heard passing reports about Cape Town's inclement weather forecast today. These reports suggest that the oncoming cold front will be one of the fiercest the city has seen in quite some time. While you'll likely need an umbrella before leaving the house tomorrow, you can also track the progress of the front as it sweeps across the peninsula. Cape Town’s winter storm coverage: Cape Town storm: what’s running, delayed or cancelled in the city #StormHelen: Twitter names Cape Town’s storm after Helen Zille Alerts ring across Twitter as Cape Town’s Wednesday storm bears closer Much like hurricanes and other weather systems, cold fronts...

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