As the province braces for the inclement weather, authorities are appealing to the public to cooperate and prioritise safety. (Papi Morake/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
It will be cold, cloudy and wet in Gauteng on Monday and Tuesday but weather conditions should start to improve from Wednesday, the South African Weather Service said.
Forecaster Venetia Phakula said the province experienced minimum temperatures of 5°C to 7°C on Monday morning with daytime maximum temperatures of 11°C and 13°C.
“By Wednesday, things will start clearing,” she said. “It will be between 19°C and 21°C, which is still relatively cool but much warmer than Monday and Tuesday. From Thursday, that’s when it will start to warm up.”
By Friday, daytime maximum temperatures in Gauteng will reach between 26°C and 28°C, she added.
On Monday and Tuesday, widespread, tropically sourced rainfall would set in over the central and eastern half of the country, with heavy rainfalls and flooding being a distinct likelihood. The weather system would bring a dramatic drop in daytime maximum temperatures over the eastern provinces, including Gauteng.
Much of the Highveld can expect maximum temperatures in the low teens on Monday and Tuesday, the weather service said, noting that some high-lying areas may even see single digit maximum temperatures.
Provinces which may be affected by severe storms include north-eastern Free State, western KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, southern Limpopo as well as the Highveld and escarpment of Mpumalanga.
Cut-off low
The heavy rainfall and moist conditions are caused by a cut-off low weather system over the central interior of the country.
“It’s just a cut-off low, which will turn into an upper trough [on Wednesday]. We have a system that causes a significant amount of rain, especially over the central interior. When we have cut-off lows, you must expect significant amounts of rainfall and really cold temperatures in places.”
On Tuesday, significant amounts of rainfall will continue to fall over Mpumalanga, in parts of Gauteng and in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.
Phakula said: “If we don’t get cut-off lows, we suffer a lot of drought so we need a few of them so that we can get a significant amount of rain and it can alleviate drought conditions.”
On Monday, the N3 Toll Concession warned that heavy snowfalls were causing dangerous driving conditions, congestion and traffic delays on Van Reenen’s Pass and requested motorists to delay travel there.
The weather service said the cause of the widespread, inclement weather was the combination of two weather systems, it said. The first is a “strong surface high pressure system, ridging well south of the country, that would introduce cold, moisture-laden air over the south-eastern and eastern coast and interior”.
Second, the development of a cut-off low over the central interior of the country would promote pronounced instability and uplift, “thus promoting rainfall … A further factor, which will enhance the likelihood and amount of rain will be the tropical nature of the air mass.”