A big chill is gripping SA with snow falling in Joburg’s CBD and parts of KZN, the Free State and the Eastern and Western Cape.
Reporters in The Star newsroom in Joburg pressed their faces to the cold glass of the Sauer Street building’s windows on Tuesday morning to watch the white flakes as the CBD became the latest of areas around the city and country to report seeing snow.
Residents in the Vaal Triangle, Vanderbijl Park and Auckland Park reported waking to snow-covered gardens while heavy snowfall has gripped the Drakensburg and parts of the Eastern and Western Cape.
Accuweather predicted that snow would spread across Joburg and the chill is expected to continue until Friday.
EMS spokesman Synock Matobako said emergency services had not been called to any weather-related incidents as yet, but said they always had higher call-outs to shack fires during cold spells and asked residents to remain safe.
The SA Weather Service also predicted more thunderstorms, heavy rainfall, snow, gale-force winds and rough seas countrywide.
Spokeswoman Kenosi Machepa said they were continuing to monitor the weather system that was expected to cause extreme weather conditions over most of SA.
KZN has been named as one of the areas to be affected, with severe thunderstorms and heavy rains expected to hit its southern parts.
Snowfall was expected in the Drakensburg area from Monday night until Tuesday morning.
The SA Weather Service reported snowfalls in Underberg and Giants Castle, KwaZulu-Natal, on Tuesday morning.
More heavy snowfall is expected on Tuesday night and Wednesday in areas such as Newcastle and Ladysmith.
There have also been reports of snowfall in Bethlehem and Clarens in the Free State and snow has fallen on Van Reenen’s Pass.
The Department of Transport appealed for motorists and truckers to reconsider any non-essential travel in and out of Kwazulu-Natal after the pass was closed due to heavy snowfall and rain.
“All we can say is that motorists should ease up on travel until the adverse weather conditions (compounded by snow) improve and the roads are re-opened,” Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) spokesman, Colin Govender, said.
The R617 running through Underberg and Swartberg were also closed because of snow, he said.
Heavy snowfalls have been recorded in Van Reenen, Mount West and Mooi River.
N3 Toll Concession (N3TC) spokeswoman, Andy Visser, said vehicles that had been travelling towards Van Reenen’s Pass had been diverted via the N11 (through Ladysmith and Newcastle).
“Heavy vehicles are being stacked (waiting in queues) at the Tugela Plaza, so we are not letting them go up the Pass to just get stuck,” she said.
She said almost 3 000 trucks passed through the area every day, but added that because they had only just closed the Pass there was not a “huge backlog” on the road yet. Some of the trucks travelling back towards Durban had been stacked at Harrismith, she said.
It was not known when the road would be reopened.
The RTI’s Zinhle Mngomezulu said the Johannesburg- and Durban-bound lanes of the N3 were jam-packed with traffic.
Pig and sheep farmer, Steve Caldecott, of Mooi River said the snow had started early this morning, and it had been “very heavy”.
Caldecott, who has lived in the town for 13 years, said it had also snowed last year at around this time, but could not say if this year’s fall was heavier or not.
“It’s only just started. We’ll see as the day goes on,” he said.
Meanwhile, drenching rain and melting snow on Tuesday cut off the Klein Karoo town of Montagu, as raging rivers flooded bridges.
A search was under way for an ambulance driver thought to be missing in flood waters.
Keri Davids, spokeswoman for the Western Cape government’s Emergency Medical Services, said: “At 5.30 this morning, an EMS practitioner traveling towards Ashton (driving out of Montagu) radioed our communications centre in Worcester to alert us that the ambulance left the Kogmanskloof bridge (above the river) and landed in fast-flowing, murky water.
“We dispatched a team of 14… to the scene and have been searching for the EMS practitioner and ambulance, currently not visible along the river bank. The EMS rescue helicopter from Oudshoorn has arrived at the location and the crew is searching for the EMS practitioner.”
To the east of Montagu, the bridge which was rebuilt after the devastating 2003 floods was under water, but a pedestrian bridge closer to the town enabled residents to cross from the south of the town.
The road from the N1 remained open, but was strewn with rocks and washed with cascading water, causing traffic authorities to warn that extreme caution should be exercised by motorists.
Authorities reported that melting snow which fell on Sunday night was contributing to the rain-swollen rivers.
In the neighbouring town of Ashton, downstream, the Kogmans River swelled to almost the height of the main bridge, cutting the town in two.
Staff at the Langeberg fruit canning company were sent home.
At the famed Avalon Springs resort and spa, which was damaged in 2003 and 2008, staff reported that their pools were overflowing but that no damage had been sustained.
Queues of cars and trucks lined the roads at all access routes towards Montagu.
Closer to Cape Town, a mud slide caused a tree to fall on the N2 in the Elgin Valley, near the Houw Hoek farmstall and inn, while rockfalls were reported on Clarence Drive between Gordon’s Bay and Rooi Els.
Netcare 911 spokesman Chris Botha said two people escaped with their lives after their vehicle plunged off a bridge and landed in the eManzimtoti River in Kwazulu-Natal on Monday night.
Reports indicated that the man and his wife were travelling along the N2 towards Durban when the driver lost control of the vehicle after hitting a water puddle on the highway.
“The vehicle spun out of control, left the road and then plunged some 20m down an embankment into the river,” Botha said.
ER24 spokeswoman in Gauteng Vanessa Jackson said they attended to a number of minor accidents related to the weather last night.
Daytime temperatures for the country are likely to drop significantly over most of the interior, with many areas expected to experience maximums of only 10ºC (or even less) today, said Machepa.
“Tomorrow daytime temperatures are still likely to be cold over most parts of the country. But we can look forward to milder, sunnier conditions across a large part of the country towards the weekend.”
She said the cause of the extreme weather conditions was a combination of a well-defined cut-off low-pressure system (located in the upper regions of the atmosphere), interacting with a cold frontal system.
“An additional feature associated with this weather pattern is the presence of a strong surface high (also known as an anticyclone) that will be ridging very strongly overland, immediately following the passage of the cold front.
“This process of surface ridging is expected to advect (ie move horizontally) very cold air from our sub-Antarctic southern ocean areas,” she said.
Meanwhile KZN’s Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Nomusa Dube has put the province on high alert following the weather warnings.
“We have been warned by our disaster experts that most parts of the province are going to experience very low temperatures.
“Many families are likely to try to keep themselves warm by lighting up open fires, using generators, among other heating mechanisms.”
Dube urged people to be careful when using heating mechanisms to prevent disastrous fires. “We have dispatched teams across most parts of KZN so that they work with municipalities to respond swiftly in case of disasters.”
The Star, Cape Argus, Daily News
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