The cold front that reached Johannesburg and other high-lying areas of South Africa on Monday brought snowfall to the city’s citizens.
Road closures and dangerously low temperatures were warned of by the weather services.
The cold front, which arrived in South Africa late last week and changed into a “cut-off low” weather system, was to blame for the snowfall in Gauteng province.
Even though Johannesburg, which is located at an elevation of more than 1,700 meters, occasionally experiences this type of weather, it is nevertheless unusual. The last times snowfall was seen were in 2012 and 1996.
The snow on Monday was a welcome novelty for many people.
Some of the ecstatic kids, who had never seen snow before, created snowballs and tried to capture flakes with their tongues at a kindergarten in Johannesburg.
The South African Weather Service issued a warning, stating that icy temperatures posed a risk to those living on the streets in a nation where poverty is still pervasive due to the snowfall that had been reported across southern parts of Gauteng and was anticipated to continue throughout the day as well as in some areas of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
Hopes of an end to power outages may be dashed by the bitter cold. Early in July, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, South Africa’s minister of electricity, suggested that the country might be close to ending the daily power outages that have plagued it.
However, when the South African winter continues in July and August, increased heating demand may exceed available electricity.
