Knysna is wet wet wet again

KNYSNA NEWS - After what has been one of the driest Novembers in decades, Knysna has finally received some welcome and much-needed rainfall over the past week-and-a-half.

The rainfall measured at the Diepwalle Forest Hut up to Sunday 19 December, provided by the Knysna Lakes section of SANParks' Garden Route National Park, indicate a 138,77% increase on the November rainfall figures.

The rain brings welcome relief, after an incredibly dry November that yielded only 24,5mm of rain, according to the Diepwalle measurements.

November was so dry, in fact, that by the 14th, only 3,2mm of rain had been recorded. There was some welcome rain on the 21st that brought 11mm of rainfall, but the remaining nine days only yielded a further 10,3mm.

According to a recent Knysna Municipality press release, the "approximate historical rainfall figure for the greater Knysna area during November is 85mm" – making November 2022 a long way off the mark.

But, with the festive season came much-needed rain in December. By 3 December Diepwalle had already recorded 14,5mm of rain, 59,18% of what was seen throughout the entire month of November.

Two weeks later Knysna got the downpour it so desperately needed, yielding a staggering 44mm of rain according to the rain gauges at Diepwalle.

This brings the total to 58,5mm in the first 19 days of December, and with just over a week left in the month this figure is bound to still increase.

Thankfully the welcome rain was not exclusive to Knysna. At Rondevlei, just outside Sedgefield, there has been an astronomical 1 063,16% increase in rainfall this month.

Rondevlei only recorded 3,8mm of rain in November, according to SANParks, but this figue skyrocketed to 44,2mm by 19 December.

Photos: Blake Linder