Tag: fishing

Sardines vs Tornados! 4 June 2024 Sardine Situation Update in Video

Sardines vs Tornados! 4 June 2024 Sardine Situation Update: Kevin in Qora weighs in our current sardine situation…

Good morning chaps, this is Kevin from Qora Mouth, just north of Mazepa Bay in the southern Transkei. Well, well, well, well, I see that our little cut-off low that gave us actually over 200 millimetres of rain over the last 72 hours moved north with much destruction. I’ve heard reports of tornadoes in Tongat and getting slammed.

Yeah, I think to understand what has happened here, we get these systems at least once or twice a year. And these cut-off lows develop south of South Africa. And it’s basically a cutoff, as the name suggests, from the predominant westerly movement of these storm fronts, where it kind of pinches itself off and then moves very erratically on its own and it’s very hard to predict what it’s going to do.

Generally, in South Africa, they sit over the ocean. So we’re these normal storm cells that come through in the wintertime. And let’s bear in mind that Cape Town gets winter rainfall and KZN gets summer rainfall. So these cutoff lows, being very erratic, they just work on their own. And what happens is that they track along the coast instead of going inland. So a storm cell like this, which would have stayed relatively deep inland and over South Africa, would have resulted in ice-cold temperatures over Gauteng, would have put snow on the Drakensberg, but would have had very little effect on the coastal region except for maybe a drop in temperature, actually had a huge effect because the storm tracked along the coast. And what happens is that with these very, very strong winds that are associated with it, they pick up a lot of moisture off of the ocean through evaporation with an 18 kilometer per second wind, lots of water is sucked up into these storm cells, and then it just gets released over the coastal regions, which is what we saw over the last couple of days. I think it’s generally passed now. It’s looking like fairly clear skies right now, some lingering clouds. So I don’t think the effect long term is going to have much effect on the sardine movement. It looks like most of the rainfall was very, very localized along the coast. So what I discussed in the previous report of larger rivers having to kind of filter their water through, I don’t think that’s going to have any marked effect on the sardines or the color of the water. I think this was very, very coastal. If we talk about the Tongat very, very coastal. If we talk about the Tongat tornado, I think that what happens with these cutoff lows is that they can sit over an area for days on end because they actually just stop moving and they just release all of their moisture.

And then they become stronger, stronger as well at the same time. They’re just backing up on themselves. More moisture is getting added to them, but they’re not moving. And so they become super storm cells. Which is what happened, which caused the tornadoes to touch down, which is just these storm cells are associated with very, very violent updrafts, definitely hail possible, and then a vortex can come out of the bottom, touches down and becomes a tornado. And this is just, you know, the evidence of how violent that these storms can become. Cut off low, not a pretty thing. It’s called the Weatherman’s Woe is another name that the weatherman give it, the Weatherman’s Woe, because very hard to predict, very hard to track, very hard to know what it’s going to be doing. But anyway, I think the worst is over, chaps. And now we can just look forward to this movement of sods again.

I’m looking out deep right now and I’d say I’ve got a bit of discoloration in the water that goes out about two kilometers out. But looking at the foam on the waves nothing too hectic. breaking, No major debris in the water. A little bit of foam on the rocks, but nothing too hectic. So, I yeah, stand by what I said. Within the next 48 to 72 hours, I think we’re going to see the sods start moving again, en masse. So, yeah, let’s hope. Let’s hope. Let’s get those sods to case it in. Let’s get the netters netting. The shad are obviously following them with a garrick right behind. So yeah, good season ahead, chaps. Good season ahead. Let’s hope all bodes well. Well, that’s all I got for now. And we’ll chat as soon as things change. Cheers.

By Kevin in Qora

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https://youtube.com/@Brucifire – highly entertaining surf reporting

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https://umzimkulu.co.za – self-catering right on the Umzimkulu River
https://umzimkuluadrenalin.co.za – sardine run coming up
https://thesardine.co.za – never miss a single sardine
https://masterwatermen.co.za – news from deep down
https://brucifire.co.za – surf and conditions reporting
https://fishbazaruto.com – your dreams are out there
https://mydofishinglures.co.za – technical sport fishing