Lightning Strike Sparks Fire at Middelburg Home, Weather Service Warns of More Thunderstorms to Come

Lightning Strike Sparks Fire at Middelburg Home, Weather Service Warns of More Thunderstorms to Come

  • A home in Seinheuwel Street, Aerorand, Middelburg, was hit by a lightning strike
  • The South African Weather Service has warned of more thunderstorms to come
  • The Middelburg area experienced some strange weather of late, including tornadoes
The Middelburg area has seen tornadoes and thunderstorms in recent days.
A lightning strike during a thunderstorm sparked a fire at a Middelburg home, days after a tornado was spotted near the area. Image: mdesigner125/ Majority World
Source: Getty Images

It’s thunderstorm season for some parts of the country, and the storms are already wreaking havoc.

A family in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, experienced first-hand just how devastating the storms can be.

Fire sparked at Middelburg home

A home in Aerorand, Middelburg, was hit by lightning during a storm on the evening of Monday, 18 November.

The lightning strike sparked a fire at the Seinheuwel Street home and also caused damage to the ceiling.

The fire department and police responded swiftly, and no injuries were reported.

Weather Service warns of more storms

The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has warned that the area could experience more storms on Tuesday, 19 November.

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SAWS issued a Yellow Level 1 warning for severe thunderstorms in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, warning that there could also be flooding in the two provinces.

SAWS warned that strong winds and hail could cause damage to property and infrastructure in the provinces and that excessive lightning is expected to strike once more.

Middelburg area experiences strange weather

The area is no stranger to the weird weather lately. Apart from the thunder and lightning, a tornado was also spotted in the region last week,

Numerous videos shared to X (formerly Twitter) showed a tornado near the N4 highway around Middelburg.

No injuries were reported following the weather phenomenon, but residents reported seeing more than one tornado forming around the area.

Northern KZN town hit by severe thunderstorm

In a related article, Briefly News reported how severe thunderstorms were battering parts of the country, with KwaZulu-Natal being hardest hit.

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The small town of Dannhauser in Northern KZN was recently left without power for over 24 hours after a thunderstorm hit the area on 15 November.

Hail and heavy rains lashed the area over the weekend, delaying repair efforts and leaving residents of the area in the dark in more ways than one.

Source: Briefly News

Authors:
Byron Pillay avatar

Byron Pillay (Editor) Byron Pillay is a Current Affairs Editor at Briefly News. He received a Diploma in Journalism from the Caxton Cadet School. He spent 11 years covering a wide variety of news as a community journalist, including politics, crime and current affairs. He also was a Head of Department for Sports Brief, where he covered both local and international sporting news. Email: byron.pillay@briefly.co.za