Johannesburg – South Africans will have to brace themselves for a cold, wet and possibly snowy weekend.
This comes as a cut-off low-pressure system develops over the north-western interior of the country by Friday.
Widespread rainfall can be expected over the southern and central parts of the country from today onwards.
Drought-stricken parts of the Eastern Cape like Gqeberha can expect to get some slight relief as between 24-hour rainfall accumulations of 25mm to 35mm are expected to fall over the region.
Light snowfall is expected over high-lying areas of the Western and Eastern Cape, spreading to the Lesotho Drakensberg regions by the weekend.
Parts of KwaZulu-Natal will need to take extra care due to the pre existing conditions caused by last month’s floods. Soil is likely to be saturated in some areas which could lead to localised flooding with rainfall expected to exceed 20mm.
Snowfalls as deep as 2 – 5 cm can be expected overnight in the high lying areas of the Western Cape.
Minimum temperatures drop drastically struggling to reach 8ºC and maximum temperatures are not expected to exceed 14ºC.
It is expected that the snowfalls will get heavier over these regions by the weekend with snowfall of up 10 – 20 cm expected over the area in the Eastern Cape and the Drakensberg region of KwaZulu Natal.
The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has warned that there is a possibility of isolated severe storms and will issue detailed radar-based warnings should the need arise.
Rainy and wet conditions are also expected for the rest of the country.
Thunderstorms, combined with strong, gusty surface winds are expected over the central interior by Friday afternoon, spreading to Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal in the evening and parts of Limpopo by Saturday.
We can look forward to a general clearing of weather conditions as well as a recovery in daytime temperatures from Monday onwards as the system exits the country.
IOL