After another day of searing heat in which the temperature almost certainly reached 40 °C again, there was a rainstorm at about 6 PM tonight. In Michigan, rain is often seen as a nuisance. In the African summer, it brings relief. The temperatures dropped, and there is actually a cool breeze at this time.
One of the benefits is that the rain will significantly help, and maybe bring to an end, the firefighting efforts. We went to the mall this afternoon to beat the heat. As we drove home, we saw three or four active fires still in our area. I expect that they'll be extinguished now.
The headline in the Weekend Argus was "90 Fires in One Day." The 90 refers to the city of Cape Town. Stellenbosch and the Boland only add to that total.
After dinner we Skyped (why do so many internet nouns become verbs?) with friends from our street in Michigan. It was nice to "see" them again, if only on the screen. Unfortunately, the connection was lost after about 10 minutes. But, the familiar faces were very welcome!
--Matt