Photo: Snow Report SA / Twitter
Photo: Snow Report SA / Twitter
We’ve had rain in the Cape, storms in Johannesburg and now we’ve got our first snowfall forecast of the season! April has been a busy month for the weather – with flood alerts in Cape Town early on Thursday- but it now seems like winter is making itself at home again.
Snowfall forecast for Friday 5 April
Snow Report South Africa (SRSA) have posted their first update in almost four months. They still remain cautious over whether the snow will make landfall, but stated their data “shows enough stability” to publish an official forecast. If you’re anywhere near the Drakensberg Mountain Range in KwaZulu-Natal, you may need to wrap up warm on Friday.
Although no low-level snow is being predicted, up to 5cm is expected to hit the South African side of the mountains, whereas the peaks of Lesotho could realistically be in for about 20cm of the white stuff.
Who will be affected by the snow?
A tiny slither of eastern Free State could also get a dusting, and Underberg to the south-east of the Drakensberg will certainly feel a chill throughout Friday. But the best of the snowfall will be way up high.
“We’ve been watching the data for a few days now and we think it’s now showing enough stability to put out a forecast, although things can still change between now and Friday. We’re seeing upwards of 10cm on the high-peaks across much of the northern, central & southern Drakensberg.”
“We have seen a fair amount of volatility in the data though, with up to 23cm still being indicated in the early update on Wednesday but through the day we saw a reduction to a maximum of 18cm. At this point, we’re not expecting low-level snow anywhere.”
Snow Report SA
Hopefully, it’ll be the start of many snow flurries this year. The Western Cape was treated to a few breathtaking days of snowfall during a chilly 2018 season and towards the end of winter, Table Mountain ended up getting a light dusting too. Bring it on, we say!
