Strongest cold front so far bites into large parts of the country

This is the latest in a series of cold fronts that hit the country this week, but this one brings with it strong sub-polar winds and snowfalls over four provinces.

  Weather forecaster Venetia Phakula says the severely cold temperatures, which started driving the mercury down on Tuesday, are expected to continue across the country until Monday.

“The cold front has already made its way over the country and with it exiting the country there is a succession higher pressure that is pushing the cold air over the interior parts of the country so we expect the cold air to start affecting most parts of the country today. The cold air will linger even tomorrow so in the morning tomorrow the interior of the country will be very cold, the maximum will still be struggling to pick tomorrow and it will start peaking by Monday,” says Phakula.

The Western Cape will be the hardest hit, with isolated showers and rain expected until Monday afternoon.

“We expect the Western Cape and Eastern Cape to be affected severely as they will be experiencing the rainfalls, the windy conditions and the rest of the other provinces are expected to be affected by only the cold conditions.”

The weather service  has issued a yellow level 4 warning for disruptive snowfall expected over Lootsberg, Wapadsberg, Penhoek, Outeniqua, Nico Malan, Winterberg passes as well as gravel road passes in the Tsitsikamma, Outeniqua and Baviaanskloof mountains on Thursday.

For the Free State, there has been a warning for a yellow level 2 warning for snow leading to difficult driving conditions over the southern parts of the province on Thursday.

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