Light snow fell over Sandton, north of Johannesburg, on Wednesday as a cold front gripped the country. Snow was also falling in Rosebank, Bryanston and Hyde Park.
”We’ve got confirmed reports of light snowfalls in Sandton,” said South African Weather Service forecaster Jacqueline Riet. ”There is snow in Westonaria, Carletonville and Soweto and Sandton.”
Riet said the first reports from Carletonville, south-west of Johannesburg, came in about 8am. Reports from other areas came in from 9am. ”It’s just very little, very isolated flakes here and there.”
Employees around Morningside reported very light falls of snow at 10am.
”It was tiny little white flakes … this was definitely dry snow,” said Ashish Singh, who lives in the area. Singh lived in Canada for six years, where it snows heavily.
Weather forecaster Kevin Rae earlier said: ”The very extreme southern parts of Gauteng could have some light snow during the morning.”
He said the rest of Gauteng could expect showers.
The Gauteng interior south of Pretoria was expected to be ”bitterly cold” on Wednesday with a maximum of 12 degrees or lower.
”Snow over Gauteng seems to occur once every eight to 10 years,” said Rae, adding that it is ”a little uncommon”.
There were also reports of snow in Bloemfontein, at the airport and in the city, said Rae.
Michael Nethavhani, of the Free State weather office, said there were light snowfalls over central, southern and the eastern parts of the Free State.
He said snow was falling in Bloemfontein, Bethlehem in the east and on the border between the Free State and the Eastern Cape. Temperatures were between zero and one degree Celsius.
”It cannot be ruled out that snow falls will occur tomorrow [Thursday],” said Nethavhani.
The cold front is expected to lift by Thursday.
Rae said there was ”a range of extreme conditions on the go”, with a likelihood of further snowfalls, possibly heavy falls, over the interior of the Eastern Cape. — Sapa