This weekend should be cold, wet and blanketed by snow for most parts of South Africa, the weather service confirmed in a statement.
Where in South Africa will it snow this weekend?
Earlier this week, we predicted snow activity in parts of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) that border Lesotho and the Eastern Cape, and a day leading up to the weekend, it seems more than likely that we will, in fact, see some activity in these areas mentioned above.
According to the South African Weather Service, however, eastern high-lying areas of the Western Cape should expect “snowfalls as deep as 2 to 5cm from Thursday night.”
The flakey weather is expected to move to the western high-lying areas of the Eastern Cape, the extreme south-eastern high-lying regions of the Northern Cape and the southern high ground of the Free State by Friday morning.
“Heavier snowfall of 10 to 20 cm can be expected over the north-eastern high ground of the Eastern Cape, the Drakensberg region of KwaZulu-Natal and the Lesotho mountains from Friday evening into Saturday morning,” SAWS noted in a statement.
Weekend weather forecast: Floods expected in KZN
Elsewhere, residents of Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KZN have been warned to brace for a weekend of thunderstorms and torrential rainfall.
A low cut-off system, accompanied by strong winds, is expected over the central interior from Friday afternoon and will be sustained throughout the weekend.
A significant concern, the weather service noted, is the high precipitation (up to 20mm) expected to fall over parts of KZN, where water-saturated soils have not hardened from March’s devastating floods that claimed 435 lives and displaced thousands of families.
For the most part, bitterly cold conditions ought to be expected in the central interior, with maximum temperatures not exceeding 14°C and, even worse, 8°C along South Africa’s eastern coastline.
“Rainy conditions are expected to continue over the eastern parts of Limpopo and Mpumalanga and the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal during Sunday; however, the public can look forward to a general clearing of weather conditions as well as a recovery in daytime temperatures from Monday onwards as the system exits the country,” SAWS added.
