First snowfall for 2009 season

It seems the first official seasonal snowfall for the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains was during the period 24-26 April. There were reports of three mini snowfalls at Sani Pass, and the snow remained on Black Mountain Pass for a while afterwards.

We were camping on Makoabong Pass, near Thaba Tseka, in Lesotho on April 26. There was snow on some peaks in the distance, and we experienced light snowfall for an hour while we were pitching tents. We measured -6 deg C the following morning.

Anyone else have any news on this, and perhaps some nice pics?

It seems the recent spate of cold weather has brought more snowfall to the Eastern Cape Berg and the high lying areas of the Maloti-Drakensberg. Satellite images reveal cloud cover 14-16 May, after which snow was evident on the following ranges:

* Eastern Cape Berg between Barkly Pass and Naude's Nek
* Ben McDhui / Thaba-Ntso range stretching across SA and Lesotho
* The high lying areas around kaNtuba and Mohlesi (north of Sani) and the Thabana Ntlenyana complex
* The Thaba Chitja ridge of Lesotho (which ends at Giants Castle Peak)
* The Mafadi-Makheka ridge
* The system of high ridges and peaks around Tlaeeng Pass and the Pass Of Guns near Afriski.

Most of the snow seems to have melted already.

Use this thread to collaborate pictures, links, reports and any other info on all snowfalls in the Maloti-Drakensberg region in 2009.

June 9th snowfall thread: vertical-endeavour.com/forums/drakensberg-hiking/464-winter-hiking.html

June 22: cold conditions over most of South Africa lead to a good snowfall over the main Drakensberg range and large parts of Lesotho including the Maloti, Central and Thaba Putsoa Ranges. See sat image below:

This snow alert thread is a great idea! Wouldnt a couple of webcams aimed at different sections of the berg be an awesome tool! The only one I know of is on the Tiffindell ski resort site, not quite KZN berg, but can give you some idea of volume, and also approximate melting rate if you check it every day or so after a front.

Recent pics of the snow at Tiffendell

Latest article in The Witness - more snow was predicted for the Kokstad and Underberg area. The picture in this article seems to be above Phuthaditjhaba.

A fresh dusting overnight on June 25th - reached as far as the Lesotho plateaus around Maseru and in the foothills around Underberg and Swartberg.

See the latest update from Gavin Raubenheimer on the ice climbing conditions in the Berg .

It seems most routes will be properly formed within the next 2 weeks.

Is there a link to get these up to date satellite pics?

Hey Jon. The datasets are from the NASA website. Check out the following link:

rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/index.php?subset=FAS_SouthAfrica1

There are 2 images per day, a Terra image and Aqua image which are used to track fires in the region.