Cold front alert: Weather service warns of heavy rain, snow and significant drop in temperatures

The South African Weather Service (SAWS) says the days of enjoying clear skies are over as a series of cold fronts are expected to make landfall from Sunday.

According to the weather service, the cold front will hit the western parts of the country early next week and move eastwards, affecting most of South Africa.

“These cold fronts are expected to result in strong winds, high waves, heavy rainfall, light snow and a significant drop in temperatures,” warned the weather service.

The first cold front is expected to reach the Western Cape on Sunday evening.

“Ahead of this front, strong north-westerly winds between 50-60 km/h, gusting up to 70-80 km/h, are expected over the southern parts of the Northern Cape and interior of the Western and Eastern Cape from Sunday.

“These strong winds are likely to result in damage to formal and informal settlements as well as possible structural damage in these areas.

“In addition, westerly to south-westerly waves, with significant wave heights of 4.0 to 4.5 m, are expected between Cape Point and Cape Agulhas on Monday morning, 13 June 2022, continuing into the afternoon. Together with these waves, strong north-westerly winds (50-60 km/h) are expected along this coast. These conditions may result in difficulty to navigate at sea.”

Another cold front is expected to hit the Western Cape on Monday evening through Wednesday afternoon, bringing high rainfall amounts in the south-western parts of the Western Cape.

This rainfall will spread eastwards on Tuesday towards the Eastern Cape.

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“Rainfall accumulations are expected to reach 50-80 mm over the mountainous areas of the Cape Metropole, the western parts of Cape Winelands and the western parts of the Overberg districts between Monday and Wednesday,” warned the weather service.

“These high rainfall accumulations are likely to cause flooding of roads and formal/ informal settlements in these areas.”

The rainfall in the Eastern Cape is, however, will not have any significant effect on the dam levels for that province, said the weather service.

Temperatures are expected to drop significantly over the entire Western Cape and Namakwa district on Monday.

This cooling will reach Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal between Wednesday, 15 June 2022 and Thursday, 16 June 2022

With this cooling, freezing levels are expected to also drop significantly, resulting in light snowfall over the southern high ground of Namakwa, as well as the high-lying areas in the western interior of the Eastern Cape on Tuesday, spreading to the north-eastern high ground of the Eastern Cape on Wednesday.