Rare Snowfall Across South Africa

[E-Z-B]

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 2 (AFP) Aug 02, 2006
Snow fell on South Africa's biggest city Johannesburg for the first time in 25 years as icy temperatures gripped vast swathes of the country on Wednesday, the weather office said.
"It (the snow) is by no means freakish but I would certainly classify it as rare," said Kevin Rae, assistant manager of forecasting at the South African Weather Service in Pretoria.

(snip)

Johannesburg last had snow on September 11, 1981.

(snip)

Bloemfontein, the capital of the central Free State province, got its first snow in 12 years, receiving 13 centimetres (5.2 inches).

Comparable widespread snow across the country had been recorded only twice in the past 20 years, in 1981 and 1988, said Rae.

(snip)

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/060802122745.4bm20a5u.html

[HereSince1628]

1. See the world is getting colder NOT warmer!

I expect that one to show up on Limpnuts before the day is over.

[uppityperson]

2. I heard that here once from a temporary poster

didn't last long and had a whole slew of replies, vast majority of which were polite even

[HereSince1628]

3. Yeah, well, I obviously meant it sarcastically

and it will get used by the anti-warming crowd.

[uppityperson]

4. I know, I was just chirping in here. It was amazing when happens for real

"it is colder some places so can't be global warming. warming does not = cooling" and kicking this for more exposure too.

[Wednesdays]

26. We had an editorial cartoon in the Daily Oklahoman

a few years ago that said just that. It was during a relatively sharp cold snap here...it depicted a man reading a newspaper headline about record cold temperatures. He said something like, "So what was all that about global warming?" :eyes:

[Massachusetts]

5. Rare Snowfall Across South Africa

FUBAR

[Bandit]

6. I don't know about world getting colder but SE Alaska

is having the coldest wettest summer in fifty years. They are blaming it on La Nina but it sure is miserable. I bet those experiencing 100 degree temperatures would change places with me for a while though. It is staying in the mid fifties and raining cats and dogs. The air is clean though and if you wear rain gear it ain't that bad....:shrug: I keep expecting to see fresh snow on the mountains as cold as it is...

[Kagemusha]

7. You do realize it's winter in the S. Hemisphere, right?

Just checking...

[E-Z-B]

8. You realize that the distance of South Africa to the equator

is about the same as Mexico to the equator, right?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

9. You do know that that's not accurate, right?

Mexico City is at 19 degrees North; Johannesburg is at 33 degrees South.

[E-Z-B]

10. Tijuana is 32 degrees.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Here's a map. Maybe you should simply look at the damned thing.

South Africa is down there at the BOTTOM of Africa. Look again at its distance from the dotted line, and compare it to Mexico's.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Kick for checking the map.

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[E-Z-B]

17. South Africa may be at the bottom of Africa, but how is it further from

the equator than Tijuana? Why the hostility?

I'm not sure which dashed line you're looking at, but the equator runs through Brazil, right?

[Judi Lynn]

18. Here's a better map.

[E-Z-B]

19. Thanks, but they're still the same distance.

[trogdor]

21. Not much winter in southern hemisphere.

Mostly in South America - Argentina and Chile mostly. Maybe it actually gets cold in Tasmania or New Zealand, but I don't know. Bottom line, there's too much damn water down there for it to get cold enough to snow, unlike the northern hemisphere, which has a lot more land. Water has a moderating effect on weather.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Maybe a DU'er who knows something about South Africa

will comment.

This part of the article was interesting to someone who's never been there:

Some welcomed the colder weather, however.

At the Tiffindell ski resort in the southern Drakensberg mountains of the Eastern Cape province, guests were elated.

"They are very excited," said the resort's chief snow-maker, Johan Smuts. "It is not every day that you get to see snow fall in Africa."

In warmer weather, Smuts oversees the manufacture of snow for the resort through a process involving water and air compression.

Tiffindell usually gets about five snowfalls a year, he said, but rarely 25 centimetres in one day, as on Tuesday.
(snip/...)

I had no idea there was a ski resort in South Africa.

Here's a site from the Tiffindell Ski Resort and Alpine Retreat:
http://www.sa-venues.com/ec/tiffindell.htm
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.mtbeds.co.za/resort.xml%3FresID%3D1377&h=140&w=220&sz=10&hl=en&start=28&tbnid=RDuziKBg74m7WM:&tbnh=68&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3DTiffindell%2B%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2004-37,GGLD:en%26sa%3DN

http://www.walkerbouts.co.za/brewery/photos/Tiffindell,%20first%20draw.JPG

[cosmicdot]

14. as a side note ... see the Antarctica cloud photos?

Scientists in Antarctica catch a glimpse of these rare clouds which form in extreme conditions



Rare cloud formation seen in Antarctica

Tue Aug 1, 7:35 PM ET

HOBART, Australia - Some of the coldest temperatures on Earth brought a rare cloud formation to the skies over Antarctica, scientists said Tuesday.

Meteorological officer Renae Baker captured spectacular images of the nacreous clouds, also known as polar stratospheric clouds, last week at Australia's Mawson station in Antarctica.

The clouds only occur at high polar latitudes in winter, requiring temperatures less than minus 176 degrees Fahrenheit. A weather balloon measured temperatures at minus 189 degrees Fahrenheit on the day the photos were taken.

Resembling airborne mother-of-pearl shells, the clouds are produced when fading light at sunset passes through water-ice crystals blown along a strong jet of stratospheric air more than six miles above the ground.


~snip~

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060801/ap_on_sc/antarctica_clouds_4

Slide show at link

[LuckyChoice]

15. thanks for the link and the photos

I've never seen that kind of clouds before.

[JNelson6563]

24. Wow! Quite stunning!

Thank you for posting that!! :toast:

[Vidar]

16. Well at least Pat Robertson recognizes global warming.

[chat_noir]

20. climate change is the more appropriate term

[Judi Lynn]

22. Oh, yeah. I remember. I've been too busy all day and night.

I don't get to read and post as often as I'd like often.

What was gnawing at me about this thread was the fact it resembles some of the "climate warming" deniers threads we occassionally get from visitors who want to push the _Bush agenda by showing "proof" the world is actually NOT getting warmer at all!

Imagine that. There's no problem here. Pitch your concerns. Nothing to worry about. Get on about your life. Buy a big, BIG vehicle, and as many as possible.

Whatever you do, don't start walking, riding a bike, or using mass transportation.

[E-Z-B]

23. No, it's the opposite.

Global warming means that weather patterns are becoming more severe, not exclusively that the globe warming up. So we see heat waves in colder areas, snow in warmer areas, more floods, more drought, more hurricanes. I'm not sure why you think this thread was meant to "deny" global warming. If anything, it strengthens its arguement.

[JNelson6563]

25. And the funny thing is

if I remember correctly, can't an ice age result due to the sort of problems caused by global warming and/or natural disasters? For instance, not necessarily a global warming thing but anything that would block the sun's rays from a large part of the earth could have such results.

I don't think extreme weather of any kind is a very good argument for the global warming deniers to use to support their views.

Julie