The mercury plunged in the Northern Cape town of Sutherland this week, hitting a near-record minus 15 degrees Celcius on Monday night.
Local resident Mariana Bernardo, who collects data for the South African Weather Service, said it came close to the lowest temperature ever recorded in South Africa, which was minus 16C, also recorded in Sutherland, on the night of July 21, 2003.
She said the maximum temperature during the day on Monday had been 4,9 degrees. When she checked her thermometer at 7am on Tuesday, it stood at minus 13C and marked the minimum for the night at minus 15C.
Taps throughout the town froze up, and only started reluctantly giving water well into Tuesday afternoon.
”The town is decorated everywhere with icicles, where the dew has been dripping from the roofs, or a tap has been leaking,” she said.
”There are a lot of windmills in the town, and their reservoirs are covered with a thick layer of ice.”
A municipal worker described the cold as ”bone-chilling”. – Sapa