Residents of Johannesburg awoke to snowfall on Monday, as a cold front struck the city and other high-lying portions of South Africa.
Forecasters warned of potential road closures and dangerously low temperatures.
The cold front that arrived in South Africa late last week and morphed into a meteorological system known as a “cut-off low” triggered the snowfall in Gauteng province.
Such weather is not unheard of in Johannesburg, which sits at an elevation of over 1,700 meters, but it is nonetheless unusual. The last snowfalls occurred in 2012 and 1996.
On Monday, the snow was a welcome novelty for many locals.
Excited youngsters at a Johannesburg kindergarten made snowballs and tried to capture flakes with their tongues, some of whom had never seen snow before.
The South African Weather Service, however, warned that icy temperatures posed a risk to street dwellers in a country where poverty remains widespread, with snowfall reported across southern Gauteng and expected to continue falling throughout the day, as well as in some areas of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
The severe cold could also dampen hopes of an end to power cuts. South Africa’s electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said in early July that the country could be nearing an end to the daily power cuts which have plagued the country.
Heightened heating demands, however, could outstrip electricity supply as the South African winter continues in July and August.
