News Talk
Check out these South African weather extremes!─── 10:14 Fri, 26 Jun 2015
The highest temperature in South Africa was recorded at Dunbrody (Sundays River Valley in Eastern Cape) measuring 50.0ºC on 3 November 1918.
A new minimum temperature record for South Africa was measured on 23 August 2013, when Buffelsfontein measured -20,1°C. This new record is 1,5°C lower than the previous minimum temperature of -18,6°C, also measured at Buffelsfontein on 28 June 1996.
CHART: Weather SA
In January 2001 a heat wave killed two people in Tzaneen in Limpopo.
The strongest wind gust ever in South Africa occurred at Beaufort West (Western Cape) on 16 May 1984 and measured 186 km/h.
The windiest place in South Africa is Cape Point (Western Cape) which experiences only 2% of all hours in the year with calm conditions.
Highest ever rainfall in one year was measured at Jonkershoek in the Western Cape (3 874 mm in 1950).
10-12 June 1902 -- The most severe snowstorm to hit the country swept over a large portion of the interior. On the 9th it also snowed on the Palmiet River flats at Caledon. During the next three days snow fell unceasingly in the Karoo, Eastern and North-Eastern Cape, the Free State and Natal. Strong winds accompanied the snowstorm and there were great stock losses. In the North-Eastern Cape, where the snow lay 60 cm deep, tens of thousands of small stock perished. In East Griqualand, the snow lay 1,5 metres deep, and more than 13 000 sheep froze to death. This snowstorm was known as the Peace Snow, as the Anglo-Boer War ended in May 1902.
Although not as common as in Tornado Valley in the USA, tornados do occur in South Africa:
- In 1948 a tornado tore through Roodepoort on the west rand, killing several people and destroying hundreds of homes.
- A long-lived tornado in 1976 travelled 175km from Hanover in the Northern Cape to Trompsburg in the Free State.
- In 1990 a significant tornado affected Welkom in the Free State, resulting in over R100 million in damages.
- Nelson Mandela, who was president at the time, was caught in a damaging tornado in Umtata in December of 1998 when the pharmacy he was in was significantly damaged. Fortunately he escaped unscathed but the twister went on to kill 11 others in the town.
- Only a month later in January of 1999, South Africa's deadliest tornado took place in the Eastern Cape, affecting the Mount Ayliff and Tabankulu areas. Over 20 people were killed, hundreds injured and many more left homeless.
We often see floods in South Africa:
- The South African town of Laingsburg was basically destroyed on 25 January 1981, when 104 of its 900 inhabitants died during a flood that swept through the town and left only about 25 houses standing.
- Heavy rains fell across southern Africa in early 2011. By early February, river flooding in South Africa alone had killed 91 people and caused over $100 million in damage, the United Nations stated. Times Live reported that the government had issued flood warnings for areas along the Orange, South Africa’s longest river.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured these false-color images of South Africa on February 13, 2011 (top), and February 19, 2010 (bottom). Both images use a combination of visible and infrared light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water ranges from blue to navy.
Vegetation is green. Bare ground varies in color from pink-tan to brown. Clouds are pale blue-green or off-white, and often cast shadows onto the land surface below.
IMAGES: NASA
- During the 1987 flood in Kwazulu-Natal the death toll was 506.
- In 1995 as much as 154 people were killed, also in Kwazulu-Natal.
Sources: South African Weather Service, IOL.co.za, Timeslive, NASA, Wikipedia.
