Residents of Johannesburg and some parts of Pretoria woke up on Monday to a landscape shredded by a hail storm.
Hailstones of up to 3cm in diameter pelted southern Johannesburg, parts of Randburg and northern Pretoria on Sunday night, South African Weather Service forecaster Evert Scholtz said.
”At about 5pm, we sent an SMS out to emergency services to warn them that there was a huge storm, with the possibility of strong winds over Lenasia, and that it was heading for Katlehong and Vosloorus,” he said.
Predictions from earlier in the afternoon had estimated hailstones to be up to the size of a grape, but the stones that fell were larger, he said.
The storm was caused by upper layers of the atmosphere being considerably colder than usual for this time of the year. This was due to cold air that moved in last week.
With this making the upper layers of air unstable, an upper-air trough moved through and triggered the storm, which developed into hail.
While most gardens’ colourful autumn displays lay in heaps, many city dwellers were faced with flooded homes and broken windows.
Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Edna Mamonyane said she was surprised that there had been no serious accidents on Monday morning.
”The roads are not clean because of the soil and water and stones and gravel,” she said.
”By now, we would usually have more than 50 accidents,” she said, adding that there had only been about 20 minor accidents.
Some traffic lights were also not working, causing traffic jams. — Sapa