‘Wintry weather’: Intense cold front, flooding and snow on Thursday

Another cold front is heading our way “to bring wintry weather to parts of SA”, and this time it was confirmed by the South African Weather Service (Saws).

Weather update

‘Intense cold front’ on Thursday

The weather services “an intense cold front associated with a steep upper-air trough” is developing over the Atlantic Ocean and will make landfall in the western parts of the country on Thursday.

It will then spread to the southern and central parts of the country by Saturday, bringing along with it “rainy and very cold conditions with snow and the high-lying areas”.

“This weather system will encroach eastwards into the Eastern Cape province on Friday afternoon, as well as central interior South Africa, including KwaZulu-Natal”.

Residents in the Western Cape can expect widespread rainfall from Thursday afternoon, while Northern Cape residents should brace for the chill from Thursday evening.

Flood warning

The weather service has warned that heavy rainfall could lead to localised flooding in informal settlements, which may also pose a risk to “safe driving on major roads”.

“Motorists driving under such conditions are advised to reduce speed and to observe safe following distances”.

Strong winds over the interior of SA are also likely to occur prior to the landfall of the cold front, with speeds estimated between 40-60km/h.

Weekend weather forecast:

Snow and more cold

The southwestern parts of the country should brace for “very cold conditions” from Friday leading into Saturday, as the front spreads to “much of the southern and central interior regions”.

This could lead to snow in the high lying areas of the Western Cape, as well as the southern and western regions of the Northen Cape from Friday.

By Saturday, the weather system will have spread to the Drakensberg region of KwaZulu-Natal, but lower atmospheric freezing levels are anticipated.