After a rather boring lull in severe weather or as far as the Cape goes, any interesting weather at all- the northern parts of the country have come to life with severe storms popping up everywhere over the past 2 weeks.

While the summer storm season generally kicks off in September there was a slightly delayed beginning this year with the first real summer rains falling in October in many places, but now that it has started things are definitely in full swing. A week or so ago there were largely publicized news reports on a hail storm which ended up killing cats, dogs, cows and denting cars. Every year there are severe storms which take place throughout the country as the summer rainfall areas get their dues.

This year has definitely started off with a bang though, most notably would be the short lived, yes extremely photogenic tornado in Zastron, in the Free State. The tornado is Zastron was caught on camera, a rare occurrence here in South Africa. The videos seems to depict a organized supercellular storm spitting hail from the core as a tornado drops down for a few moments. The tornado appears to be out in the open land and looks to have not caused any damage, but the tornado was definitely a beauty.

I received an email from fellow storm chaser Mungo Poore with a link to the video in question:

The video pretty much says it all, the severe weather season is here so all you chasers, get ready for what if it continues- is going to be an active season. Be sure to stop by the forum and join in the group discussions on any weather events that are taking place around the country and stay in the know regarding the severe weather situations.

Again today we have severe thunderstorm warnings out for much of the northern and central areas of South Africa.