August starts with winter rain for South

Staff Reporter

The month of August did not only start with cold, frosty conditions in some parts of the country, but it also arrived with significant rainfall – and even hail – in certain places, particularly in the South.

Many people captured and shared photos of the remarkable weather conditions on social media and a few of these photos show a hail-covered landscape at Swarzrand, located near Maltahöhe. The photos were shared on Facebook (by Elize Van Tonder Cilliers), with the caption “this morning at six o’clock it started raining… ice-rain. I live on the Swarzrand Plateau near Maltahöhe”.

Another Facebook user (Jonathan Thomas) shared a photo of a nearly filled rain gauge, with the caption “Snyfontein settlement in //Kharas region, we received 20mm last night”.

These weather conditions came with little surprise as Namibia Meteorological Services predicted that the //Kharas, Hardap, Khomas and Omaheke regions will receive rain and thundershowers on Monday and Tuesday.

According to Namibia Meteorological Services, Tses, Bloedvlei, Fanara, Koes, Karasburg and Kairos, in the //Kharas region, recorded 10mm, 8mm, 5mm, 4mm, 1mm and 0,3mm of rain respectively by Tuesday morning.

Namibia Meteorological Services also shared that Arbeidsgenot and Naos, in the Khomas region, recorded 7mm and 1mm of rain respectively.

Besides the rain, Namibia Meteorological Services predicted cloudy and cold to mild conditions for the interior of the country, with minimum temperatures ranging between 1⁰C to 4⁰C in places such as Windhoek, Otjiwarongo, Grootfontein, Okakarara, Maltahöhe, Mariental and Tsumeb.

However, it appears that Tuesday was actually much colder than predicted as many places actually recorded minimum temperatures that were below 0⁰C. For example, Otjiwarongo and Grootfontein, in the Otjozondjupa region, recorded -2⁰C on Tuesday morning.

The low temperatures that came with the arrival of the final winter month were confirmed by several Facebook users, who shared photos of thermometers indicating that the temperatures were below zero on Tuesday morning.

The partly cloudy and cold conditions are expected to persist in the southern parts of the country on Wednesday, according to Namibia Meteorological Services’ latest predictions.

The coast is also expected to be partly cloudy on Wednesday, but with mild to warm weather and the far north is expected to warm to hot.