/ 20 April 2005

First snows of the winter dust Cape peaks

The first snow of winter has dusted peaks in the Western Cape. Hex River valley resident Andries Brown said that in the wake of the cold front that moved in on Tuesday, the Matroosberg had a fair coating of snow.

Above Tulbagh, there was light snow on the Groot Winterhoek peak on Tuesday.

”It rained off during the night, but we definitely had it,” said resident Rosette Jordaan. ”I saw it with my own eyes.”

Meteorologist Carlton Fillis of the weather service’s Cape Town office said forecasters were ”basically at the mercy” of people phoning in, for knowledge of whether it had actually snowed.

A woman had phoned in to say she could see some snow on the peaks around Worcester, which made it all the more likely that the 2 249m-high Matroosberg would have had snow.

”In actual fact I would love to see some pictures of it,” he said.

”Sometimes people send us pictures.”

The weather service has warned that the very cold and windy conditions will continue over the high ground of the Western and Northern Cape on Wednesday morning, and spread to the Eastern Cape.

There will be some relief from Wednesday night, but another, weaker, cold front will follow on Thursday night.

It is expected to warm up over the weekend. – Sapa