Cape Storm (2017)

Cape Storm of 2017

Satellite imagery showing the storm front as it hit the Western Cape from before the storm hit on the 5th June to the day the storm made landfall on the 7th to the day after on the 8th of June. The small red dots between Knysna and Port Elizabeth represent fires and thermal anomalies that spread in the wake of the storm.
Type	Extratropical cyclone, Winter storm
Formed	June 2017
Highest gust	120 km/h (75 mph)
Total fatalities	8
Areas affected	Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape

The Cape Storm, also known as #CapeStorm, was an unusually large south Atlantic storm that struck the southern coast of South Africa on the 7 June 2017 with wind speeds as high as 120 km/h. Wave heights of 9–12 metres were recorded between Cape Columbine and Cape Agulhas. The storm directly caused eight deaths, damaged 135 schools across the Western Cape. Around 800 homes were flooded across the city of Cape Town due to the storm.

Despite dropping up to 50 mm of rain the storm did not break the drought affecting the region.

High winds of 50 km/h caused by the storm fueled around 20 to 30 significant fires that swept through the town of Knysna and surrounding areas in the days after the storm. The fires killed seven people and displaced around 10,000 with around 600 structures in Knysna and Plettenberg Bay being destroyed.

The fires were notable for involving the largest deployment of firefighters in South Africa to that date. A total of 985 firefighters along with 78 vehicles, ten helicopters, and two fixed winged aircraft were used in combating the fire between 6 June and 10 June 2017. It is estimated that the fires caused between R4 billion and R5 billion (around US$297 million to US$372 million) in damages to private property with an additional R136 million worth of damage done to public infrastructure.

Unofficial preliminary conjecture suggests that some of the fires might have been lit by arsonists.