Bitterly cold conditions with rain and snow forecast for much of SA

Cold air seeped into the southern part of South Africa on Saturday, the start of what the South African Western Service (Saws) called a “particularly intense” cut-off low weather system, which has brought frigid conditions to large parts of the country and is expected to last until the middle of next week.  

“The cold front has passed over the Western Cape and it is currently over the Eastern Cape,” said senior Saws forecaster Tokelo Chiloane on Sunday.

“This system has dropped temperatures in the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape. However, a cut-off low will be over the south-western parts of [South Africa] today, and it will further drop temperatures over the aforementioned provinces, including Free State and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) from today onwards,” she said.

Extreme winter weather was forecast for South Africa this weekend, with most provinces facing bitterly cold conditions, gusty winds and the possibility of snow, Daily Maverick reported on Friday. The low-pressure system, known as a cut-off low, began affecting the Western Cape and Northern Cape early on Saturday.

Chiloane said the cold temperatures and heavy rainfall had mainly been concentrated in the Western Cape.

“The cold front is now expected to pass through the Eastern Cape province today, reaching KwaZulu-Natal by the end of the day… We have rainfall and very cold conditions in the Eastern Cape as well as the Western Cape province, not forgetting the southern parts of the Northern Cape and the southern parts of the Free State today,” she said.

The Hex River mountains in Western Cape on Sunday. (Photo: Naomi / Facebook / Snow Report SA)

While the western parts of the Western Cape will be clear on Monday, rain is forecast for the central and eastern parts of the province. This includes Beaufort West and De Aar in the Northern Cape.

Every province except Limpopo may experience snowfall, and disruptive snowfalls are anticipated over mountain passes, including the N3 at Van Reenen’s Pass, where travel may be affected on Monday and Tuesday.

“The Eastern Cape has an 80% chance of rain [forecast for Monday], as well as snow over the escarpment,” said Chiloane.

“Originally, our predictions showed that the system was going to move northeastwards. Unfortunately, now the predictions are showing that it’s just going to move eastwards, meaning that the rainfall that we were expecting in the Gauteng province from tomorrow onwards … won’t be as high,” she said.

Winter bites in Cape Town 

On Sunday morning, City of Cape Town Disaster Risk Management Centre spokesperson Charlotte Powell told Daily Maverick that no major incidents were reported to the Disaster Operation Centre.

The Saws weather warning for disruptive rain was cancelled for Sunday, but a Level 2 warning for damaging waves and a Level 3 snow warning for the Beaufort West area remained in place, said Powell.

Read more: Cape of Storms

“The city’s Disaster Risk Management Centre is monitoring for any impacts from the current forecast… Thus far, no significant impacts have been reported to the Disaster Operations Centre, although the situation might change as the day progresses,” Powell said in a statement.

South African nonprofit Gift of the Givers was hard at work preparing for the cold spell, which caused icy conditions in the Cape.

“We’ve been inundated with calls for assistance from numerous informal settlements around the Cape Town metropolitan area, including those in Drakenstein, Mbekweni and Rawsonville as well, where people are asking us to come to the assistance of localised flooding,” said Gift of the Givers’ operations manager, Ali Sablay.

Sablay said the organisation had received reports of localised flooding in Taiwan and Site B informal settlements in Khayelitsha, Polar Park and Browns Farm in Philippi East; Klipfontein and Europe in Gugulethu; Barcelona in Nyanga; and Lwandle and Nomzamo near Strand.

“The list just carries on,” he said.

“Our teams are on the ground currently. We have a team going out to the Khayelitsha area and a team going out to assist in the Lwandle [and] Nomzamo area in Strand. We have brought in additional resources to assist flood victims … from our warehouses in KZN and Gauteng,” he said.

Sablay said there had been an increase in informal settlement fires over the past week.

“We do understand with this severe, cold weather how challenging it is for those in informal settlements to keep their families warm… We are appealing to residents — we do understand the dire straits you are in to keep you and your family warm — but if you do use any of these kinds of resources to keep your family warm, please do the right thing and, before you fall asleep, [put the fire out].” DM