Brrrrace for cold two weeks

Gauteng residents have been warned to brace themselves for two weeks of cold weather, with temperatures below 20oC – with rain or storms forecast.

“The cold wind and cool temperatures are, however, here to stay – with temperatures under 20oC predicted,” said Vox Weather meteorologist Annette Botha.

Expect cold mornings

She said the only rain forecast for the weekend was over the East Coast region. Botha said the rest of the country, especially the interior, can expect cold mornings with frost forecast and minimum temperatures expected to drop to freezing point.

“Maximum temperatures are struggling to recover and will peak below 20oC or low 20s for some places,” she said.

“The fact that temperatures take so long to recover was one of the indications that the winter season was in full swing.

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“During spring, summer and autumn, temperatures recover and increase to up to 30oC within two days in Gauteng. However, during winter, it took days for the temperature to recover to the low 20s.”

Temperatures remain under 20oC for the next two weeks

Botha said temperatures were expected to remain under 20oC for the next two weeks. “Pretoria might touch on 20 degrees, but the rest of Gauteng is expected to remain below the 20oC margin.”

She said minimum temperatures dropping to below freezing point and below 5oC were forecast for Gauteng for the next week.

However, Botha said Gautengers can look forward to winter sun, despite the cold temperatures.

“It’s difficult to forecast when we would reach the coldest minimum temperature for the season, but winter is in full swing so the cold will come and go. We can expect a few sunny winter days and cold fronts again.”

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She said the next cold front was expected to enter the country by Wednesday and blow over soon after.

“It will reach the Western Cape and bring some rain, but won’t have a big impact on the interior.”

No snow warnings

There were no snow warnings issued for the week.

“For snow to fall, the atmospheric temperature must be at or below freezing at least, but it also depends on other factors,” she said.