The Business Insider of South Africa is reporting Cape Town’s residents are experiencing unusually cold weather. Indeed, some areas in Cape Town have set new records for cold temperatures.
Capetonians say it is pretty cold round about now, and not entirely without cause. On Monday, preliminary data from the SA Weather Service shows, its Royal Yacht Club station captured a new record low temperature.
That low was 3.1 degrees Celsius (down from the previous record of 3.3 degrees), which people in Sutherland may have found relatively balmy. On Monday, that Northern Cape town saw a minimum of -8, and on Sunday the temperature never made it above 7.4.
… for Cape Town, that is on the cold side. The city’s climate is classed as Mediterranean….
The region’s cold temperatures were accompanied by high winds and rain, which the South African Weather Service (SAWS) had warned of just days earlier.
According to the Independent Online, SAWS indicated the Western Cape would be hit be three consecutive cold fronts or bands of cold weather that would deliver rain and even snow in some areas.
“The public and small stock farmers should be advised that loss of vulnerable livestock and crops can be expected due to the combination of very cold, windy, and wet conditions. The weak and frail may also be vulnerable, since their bodies won’t be able to retain heat so easily,” SAWS weather advisory said. It also warned small vessels and watercraft going out to sea would face high waves with the threat of being capsized was likely. SAWS weather advisory also said high tides and strong waves could damage coastal structures and advised that “[c]oastal users (e.g rock anglers) are at risk of being swept away from low-lying areas by infrequent large waves.”
The Business Insider reports winter weather this extreme has possibly not been experienced since possibly the late 1780s. Researchers who the Business Insider interviewed looked at the daily ship registers that Cape Town Colony’s founder Jan van Riebeeck requested be kept. The researchers report, “[r]esults show extreme weather and climate variability in Cape Town during the mid- to late 1780s,” with 1787 being a particularly “wretched year,” with 121 days of rainfall, 60 percent above the average for the most recent 75 year period.