Prepare rather than panic.
This is the message from SA meteorologists ahead of a scorching summer.
The global thermometer is apparently a sliver in the Pacific — Niño 3.4 — and it is turning a livid red.
The global meteorology community organised around the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) is in broad and rare agreement — 83% to be precise.
This is the percentage of certainty that we are entering an unprecedented period of scorching summer heat, but we will start feeling it in spring.
Even our cautious SA Weather Service, a full partner of the WMO, is taking the language a little further with SAWS climatologist Dr Christien Engelbrecht saying that looking at what’s looming, it is fair to expect a Super El Niño.
SAWS is hitting the global standard with its clarion-clear early warning systems but is still suggesting that down here on the southern tip we must wait and see. Spring and even early summer will reveal the truth.
But there is no doubt we will be feeling the heat. We have had good rain recently, but the public would be remiss in thinking we can water our lawns and fill pools and flush as if there is no tomorrow.
Water disappears fast, especially when berg winds fan the flaming temperatures.
The earth will be dry, and there will be fire and ash.
And typical of anthropogenic forcing — the impact humans are having on the biosphere — there will also be sudden, fierce storms which drench one valley but not the next.
Awareness is our first step, action next.
It is time to find a way to harvest your own water. This is sensible.
There is always an upside to a bad event: There will be a lot of sun so solar power becomes an option when the grid gets hot and there are breakages.
Even a small solar panel makes a huge difference to a struggling household.
Of vital importance to the metro, inlanders will want to come to the coast to cool off.
This will mean a radical revisioning of tourism in the metro.
It is time to stop pretending that our amenities are in great condition and well serviced. They are not. Sewers leak, pipes are broken, cleaning is lackadaisical and random, and the lifeguard community is poorly resourced.
It is fatuous and fake to start mowing and repairing at election time. For the good of the city economy, we should look clean and inviting every day.
It is time to replace surly officialdom with a friendly, welcoming mien.
A small investment of our rates and taxes could bring a surprising deluge of cash to our coastal metro.