Daily Snow Report: Forecasters keep watch as cold front builds
· The South African
The Daily Snow Report for Thursday, 6 August brings calm news for South Africa, with no impact-based weather warnings in place as forecasters continue to track a developing cold front that could bring snow to the country by the weekend.
The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has not issued any impact-based warnings for the day.
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It has flagged an advisory for a passing cold front, accompanied by a cut-off low. That system is expected to affect the southern parts of the country from Sunday into Monday.
SAWS says that system could bring very cold, wet and windy conditions, very rough seas, and a risk of localised flooding.
It has urged the public and small stock farmers to take the necessary precautions to safeguard lives, property and livestock.
Today’s daily snow report: mostly fine conditions across the country
According to SAWS, most provinces can expect a fine and cool day, with only isolated showers and rain in a few places.
Gauteng will see morning frost in places before settling into a fine, cool day, staying warmer in the extreme north.
Mpumalanga can expect fine and cool to warm conditions.
Elsewhere, the Western Cape remains cloudy and cold to cool, with isolated to scattered showers in the southwest and south. The Eastern Cape stays fine and cold to cool inland, turning cloudy with showers along the coast from the afternoon.
KwaZulu-Natal stays mild and mostly dry, with only patchy evening fog expected over the interior.
Apart from the weekend advisory, no additional impact-based weather warnings have been issued for today.
Attention turns to this weekend’s snow threat
SAWS says the cold front due to make landfall over the Western Cape and Northern Cape on Sunday, 9 August, is expected to bring cold to very cold, wet and windy conditions, rough seas, and snowfall over mountainous areas, before spreading to the Eastern Cape as the system moves east.
By Monday, 10 August, the trough is expected to deepen further as it moves over the central to eastern parts of the country, spreading cold to very cold conditions inland while rain continues over the south.
Early indications suggest Mpumalanga and the usual high-lying stretches of the Eastern Cape and Drakensberg could be in the firing line once again, alongside Lesotho’s Afriski Mountain Resort, an area regular readers will know from the Sani Pass closures earlier this winter.
Meteorologists have cautioned that the forecast remains at an early stage and is likely to shift over the coming days as newer data comes in.
For now, South Africans can expect another relatively quiet winter’s day before attention turns fully to the weekend.
I’ll be keeping a close eye on how that forecast develops, since a system this widespread would be one of the more notable weather events of the season so far.
That’s today’s daily snow report. Check back tomorrow for the next update.
Are you hoping the cold holds off a little longer, or are you ready for another snowy weekend?
Let us know in the comments below, Mzansi …
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