Feeling chilly, South Africa? Snow reported at Afriski, Tiffindell & Sani Pass

afriski lesotho south africa snow may 2017 twitter

Update #3, 15 May, 12pm: Snow continued to fall across South Africa’s Drakensberg and Lesotho’s Maloti mountains.

Have a good weekend? Bet it wasn’t as ‘cool’ as @drakensbergcanopytour’s though: they had their first snow of 2017! 🌨☃️🌨

A post shared by Canopy Tour South Africa (@canopytoursa) on

First snow of 2017 #drakensberg #snow #2017 #winter #winterton #snowhunting #nature

A post shared by Kirst (@kirst_tsrik) on

Descent into Rockeries pass. #mnwenimarathon #trailrunning #drakensberg #lovesouthafrica

A post shared by Matthew Smith (@matthewshawsmith) on

Update #2, 12 May, 4.30pm: Reports from Twitter suggest that it’s snowing in Lesotho, and the conditions are subsequently wreaking havoc on the country’s roads.

It has also begun snowing at the Sani Pass — the road pass between KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho.

Update #1, 12 May, 2.05pm: Another image of Tiffindell’s snowfall has been captured by Maarten den Heyer, and repbulished on Twitter by Gauteng Weather.

Tiffindell’s Facebook page also posted a number of snaps detailing the weather. The post has since received over 200 shares on the social network.

An earlier recorded still from Cathedral Peak Hotel’s live webcam in the Drakensberg shows snow on the mountain’s upper slopes.

cathedral peak snow report may 2017

Original article: It’s mid-May, and a cold front has just washed across South Africa’s interior. Those two things can only mean one thing: snow.

Snowfall was spotted and experienced in small pockets across the country’s higher regions today (12 May), according to social media.

While this first notable cold snap of the year isn’t yet blanketing the entire interior in white, fluffy frozen water, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have embraced the first winter flakes.

Lesotho’s AFRISKI, one of two ski resorts in Southern Africa, was first to take to social media to announce the weather’s arrival.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow… The first snowfall of the season has arrived! We woke up to the beautiful sight of a light dusting of snow this morning,” it wrote on Instagram from the Maluti Mountains.

Tiffindell, in the Eastern Cape’s Drakensberg, also reported snow today.

Other reports on Twitter suggest that the N1 between Welkom and Kroonstad in the Free State has also experienced an icier form of precipitation.

ReenvalSA also later confirmed this on Twitter.

The South African Weather Service tweeted that “Disruptive snowfall is possible in the mountainous areas of the NE parts of EC from Friday into Saturday”.

“Very cold conditions expected to spread to escarpment of KZN, Highveld of MPU, NE FS on Saturday” as well as the “NE highground of EC, and Drakensberg areas of KZN”, it added in subsequent tweets.

Follow the snow online

If you’re on the coast or have no way to visit snow-capped mountains this weekend, the internet can help you out.

We’ve put together an essential list of Twitter accounts you should follow for updates about snowfall across South Africa. Access it right here.

Snow Report, a local website specifically attuned to covering South Africa’s annual dusting, allows users to monitor a number of live webcams across the country.

Additionally, we’ll be sure to monitor Instagram and Facebook this weekend and update this post accordingly with embedded images, the hashtags you can use to search social media, and related news from the internet.

Feature image: AfriSki (@SkiAfriski) via Twitter

This is a developing story. Refresh the page regularly for updates.

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