Warm Agulhas Current fuels Western Cape's worst flood‑producing storms

For communities across the Western Cape, cut-off low weather systems are a familiar threat.

They can dump torrents of rain in a matter of hours, flooding roads, damaging homes and infrastructure, and, in the worst cases, causing loss of life.

What scientists have long wanted to understand is why some of these storms become so destructive, and researchers at the University of Cape Town (UCT) found that the answer lies far offshore, in the warm waters of the Agulhas Current. ...