Snow, damaging winds and rain hit as cold front sweeps across country

TimesLIVE

a day ago

The SA Weather Service (Saws) has issued multiple warnings as a cold front sweeps across the country, bringing freezing temperatures, scattered showers and snowfall over high-lying areas, including parts of the Eastern Cape and the Drakensberg mountains bordering Lesotho.
The weather service has issued a warning for the possibility of disruptive snow over the high-lying areas of the Eastern Cape, which may also lead to icy roads on Wednesday.
For the weather outlook on Tuesday, Saws forecaster Lehlogonolo Thobela said isolated to scattered chances of rain and showers are expected over the southwestern interior, with widespread coverage mainly over the southwestern part of the Western Cape.
He said the scattered showers and rain will be over the western half of the Eastern Cape, extending into the extreme southeastern part of the Northern Cape. Very cold conditions are expected over the high-lying areas of the Eastern Cape, which may result in some snowfall over the Drakensberg mountains.
A warning has been issued for damaging waves which are expected along the west coast into the south coast, as well as damaging winds along the east coast.
Thobela said the waves may result in localised disruptions of beachfront activities and interrupt some harbours and ports.
'We're also expecting navigation at sea to be difficult with these conditions, so take caution if you're around those areas,' he said.
On Wednesday, Thobela said isolated showers and rain will dominate over the Western Cape, the eastern part of the Northern Cape, covering the Free State, into the southern part of the Northwest and over the southern parts of Gauteng, into Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the western half of the Eastern Cape.
For the eastern half of the Eastern Cape, scattered showers and rain are expected into the afternoon, covering the southern parts of KZN, with snowfall still expected over the high-lying areas of the Eastern Cape into the Lesotho Mountains.
'In our warnings for tomorrow, we have a possibility of some disruptive snow over the high-lying areas of the Eastern Cape, which may also lead to some icy roads. It is a yellow level 1, which means we're expecting minor impacts, with a medium likelihood of this disruptive snow happening, especially over areas north of Nxuba (Cradock) to areas around Maletswai (Aliwal North) and most parts of the Drakensberg mountains that lead to Lesotho.'
He said Pretoria residents can expect a fine day today with a maximum of 20° Celsius. .
On Wednesday, Thobela said the fine conditions will start in the morning into the afternoon, where the temperatures are expected to peak at 21° , but partly cloudy conditions are expected later in the afternoon in Pretoria into the evening.
'Once you get to Thursday, cloudy conditions are expected with cold temperatures and the possibility of rain showers from early morning into the afternoon, a maximum of 12°C expected, with a minimum of 8° on Thursday in Pretoria. On Friday, temperatures will start to pick up with a maximum of 17°.'
The fine conditions will become partly cloudy by the afternoon on Saturday.