Snow Watch 2011

These pictures are compliments of John Hone from Underberg this morning:

For 2 days after this snowfall the cloud-cover only allowed glimpses of the extent of the snowfall. This finally cleared enough on the 27th to allow this view. Quite a lot of snow in the Eastern Cape Berg, Witteberg Range, and the Thaba Putsoa and Central Ranges of Lesotho. Bear in mind that a lot of snow had already melted. Earlier sat images showed snow in the lowlands of Lesotho, and quite far down in the Giants Castle area. Looking at the current sat images, snow remains on the high ranges of the Eastern Cape Berg.

From the Afriski Website:

"Never before has so much snow been made so early in the season. The snowmakers are loving the cold weather, the slopes are covered until pylon 6 and they are going to attacking the top of the slope in the next few days .."

An unusual winter weather system is going to be affecting South Africa this week. A cut off low is expected to produce heavy rains in many places with significant snowfall over the Drakensberg and Lesotho mountains from about Wednesday. The SA Weather Service has predicted 80mm of rain for Underberg on Thursday, this could translate into a frightening amount of snow on the mountains if they're correct!

From the WeatherSA site for the EC:

VALID:07/06/2011- 08/06/2011 Warning: 1.Heavy rain is expected over the south-east coast and northern parts of the Eastern Cape WARNING VALID 08/06/2011 1.Heavy rain is expected over the south coast and adjacent interior. 2.Very cold conditions are expected over the northern Eastern Cape. 3.Snowfalls are expected over the north-eastern highground of the Eastern Cape. Valid 09/06/2011 ADVISORY: 1.Heavy rainfall is expected over the southern parts of the Eastern Cape on Thursday.

Ladysmith:
Moving from Partly cloudy
to Cloudy with showers and thundershowers
Wind: 10kmph NE am, 20kmph NE pm
22h actual: 10.6°C, 896hPa, 68% humidity

Looks like snow is a definite for this week!