Social media message about cyclone approaching CT fake - meteorologist explains

CAPE TOWN - A message doing the rounds on social media, warning residents about a cyclone approaching Cape Town is fake and causing unnecessary panic.

This may have been prompted by forecasters referring to a current cold front as a mid-latitude cyclone.

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While technically this may be correct, what residents are actually experiencing is simply an extremely strong cold front.

Vox Weather meteorologist Annette Botha: "For a system to reach cyclone strength, it needs to be sustained winds... this is not gusting winds, it's sustained winds of more than 115km/h. So that's extremely strong. I agree, it's not right to refer to this as a cyclone, we meteorologists usually say this is an extremely strong cold front because of that confusion. The actual cyclone part never moves over South Africa, it's only the frontal part of the system."

Botha said there's a huge difference between a tropical cyclone and a mid-latitude.

"One thing that they do have in common is that they both form from a low-pressure system but then they have differences when it comes to their formation, their characteristics and their impact."