Daytime temperatures were expected to drop significantly from Wednesday and would only warm up from Friday.
Graphics released by SAWS show that the brunt of the storm, with an 80% expectation of rain, will be in an oval shape in central-eastern SA.
The eastern half of the Eastern Cape will have a 60% chance of rain on Wednesday with snow on the escarpment.
On Thursday, the area at the centre of the slow storm, with an 80% chance of rain, lengthens to become a band stretching north-eastward.
The Eastern Cape interior has a 60% chance of stormy weather, but for most of the coast and adjacent interior the chance of rain falls to 30%.
SAWS said the cut-off low was expected to make landfall over the western interior on Wednesday and would move slowly eastward for four days.
Eastern and central SA would experience scattered to widespread showers and thundershowers.
In the eastern regions, rainfall was likely to exceed 50mm on Wednesday and Thursday.
Thunderstorms were likely to flood roads and settlements, as well as cause damage or loss of infrastructure, property, vehicles, livelihoods and livestock, the agency warned.
The Free State and the North West faced a “distinct possibility of damaging hail” during the thunderstorms.
The weather service was monitoring the system and would issue updates when required.
Daily Dispatch
Third cut-off low pressure cell to unleash full orchestra of climate distemper
Image: SUPPLIED
The Eastern Cape and much of SA heads into the third cut-off low (COL) storm in two weeks.
From Wednesday, snow, hail, thunder, lightning and deluges are forecast as the system, trapped in place by high pressure cells, unloads a full orchestra of climate distemper.
Snowfalls were expected over the Eastern Cape’s southern Drakensberg range, and eastward along the range, including Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal.
Weather app Windy.com reveals the true culprit: the low pressure system is trapped by an enormous high pressure cell stretching 8,000km from the Atlantic Ocean in line with the northern border of Namibia around SA to beyond the southern tip of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
These cells draw in moisture from the warming oceans.
Tuesday was a day of deluges for areas of East London after an Orange Level 6 warning was issued by the SA Weather Service (SAWS) on Monday.
On Tuesday, the weather service said the low pressure cell was expected to bring heavy rain and cold conditions to much of the country from Wednesday and would only exit SA on Saturday.
Brrrr-ace for snow, hail and rain
Daytime temperatures were expected to drop significantly from Wednesday and would only warm up from Friday.
Graphics released by SAWS show that the brunt of the storm, with an 80% expectation of rain, will be in an oval shape in central-eastern SA.
The eastern half of the Eastern Cape will have a 60% chance of rain on Wednesday with snow on the escarpment.
On Thursday, the area at the centre of the slow storm, with an 80% chance of rain, lengthens to become a band stretching north-eastward.
The Eastern Cape interior has a 60% chance of stormy weather, but for most of the coast and adjacent interior the chance of rain falls to 30%.
SAWS said the cut-off low was expected to make landfall over the western interior on Wednesday and would move slowly eastward for four days.
Eastern and central SA would experience scattered to widespread showers and thundershowers.
In the eastern regions, rainfall was likely to exceed 50mm on Wednesday and Thursday.
Thunderstorms were likely to flood roads and settlements, as well as cause damage or loss of infrastructure, property, vehicles, livelihoods and livestock, the agency warned.
The Free State and the North West faced a “distinct possibility of damaging hail” during the thunderstorms.
The weather service was monitoring the system and would issue updates when required.
Daily Dispatch
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