The latest monthly Seasonal Climate Watch issued by the SA Weather Service now forecasts above-normal rainfall across most of the country. This includes the southwest, which previously was expected to have an unseasonably dry winter.

The monthly Seasonal Climate Watch issued by the SA Weather Service makes tentative five-month predictions and is used, among other things, by farmers and grain traders to forecast planting conditions and price movements. It is never set in stone and is always subject to change -- and for the southwest, it has changed for the better.

"The multimodel rainfall forecast indicates above-normal rainfall for most of the country during winter (Jun-Jul-Aug) through to early spring (Aug-Sep-Oct)," the Seasonal Climate Watch says. "Minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to be mostly above-normal countrywide for the forecast period."

Pointedly, the forecast now sees above-average rainfall for the southwest in the winter and for the eastern coastal areas of South Africa during the spring.

In the previous Seasonal Climate Watch issued in May, it said: "For the next two seasons, mid-winter (Jun-Jul-Aug) and late-winter (Jul-Aug-Sep), there is below-normal rainfall expected for the southwest ... As most of the rainfall during winter is expected in the far southwest, the below-normal rainfall conditions in those areas are expected to have a significant impact."

This was broadly in line with its outlook in April, so it is good news for a region which had expected...