By Bisola Adeyemo
The South African Weather Service (SAWS) on Wednesday predicted a two days “rainy and very cold conditions with snow” that will affect Western Cape, South Africa in the days to come.
Firstly, an intense cold front will make landfall in the Western Cape early on Thursday morning spreading to the Eastern Cape during the afternoon as well as parts of KwaZulu-Natal in the evening.
A second system, a cut-off low, will develop during Friday over the western interior of the country, causing wintry conditions to persist over the southern parts of the country.
The system will also dump rain over the central interior of the country, a relatively uncommon occurrence for this time of year, said the weather service.
Widespread rainfall of 15 to 35mm is expected over the southern parts of the Western Cape and the south-western parts of the Eastern Cape. 24-hour accumulated rainfall of up to 40 to 50mm is also likely along coastal and adjacent mountainous regions of the eastern Garden Route District of the Western Cape and the south coast and adjacent interior of the Eastern Cape which may result in localised flooding of susceptible areas and roads.
Snowfall is expected over the eastern high-lying areas of the Western Cape, spreading to the high-lying areas of the Eastern Cape from the afternoon into the evening, persisting into Friday where some areas could experience traffic disruptions to some roads and mountain passes.
According to the weather service, news24 reported that snowfall is expected to spread to the Drakensberg regions of KwaZulu-Natal from Thursday night onwards.
“The good news is that weather conditions will generally start to improve over the Western Cape during Friday, while cold conditions can be expected to arrive over parts of Mpumalanga and southern Gauteng on this day,” said SAWS.
The cut-off low-pressure system is expected to exit the country on Sunday afternoon, allowing a spell of more settled, warmer weather to return during the following week.
Therefore, SAWS said it will continue to monitor any further developments relating to this weather system and will issue subsequent updates as required.