[This year we have had the strangest weather I have seen in S.Africa in my 25 years here. It was the wettest summer I’ve ever seen in Johannesburg. Normally here we have sunshine 95% of the time. But it was the cloudiest summer I’ve ever seen.

We have been grateful for the rain, but it was quite a chilly summer. As a result, everyone has been expecting us to have a really cold winter. And winter is definitely about a month early.

The other day the weather office issued warning of extreme cold weather. Snow has fallen over the mountainous portions of the country.

I must say I have been waiting for 25 years to see snow in Johannesburg, and I think this year we might just get lucky. When I arrived in S.Africa from Zimbabwe, it was a very cold year. But I was in Pretoria at the time, and Pretoria is about 2 degrees warmer than Johannesburg even though it is only 50Km away. That year it snowed in Johanesburg in September – but there was nothing in Pretoria.

My mother tells me that when she grew up in Johannesburg in the 1920’s-1930’s – it snowed much more often and they used to stuff newspapers under their clothing due to the cold. Clearly the temperature has rised since then because it is snowing less and less in Johannesburg. The last snow here was in 1981, and prior to that 1968.

When I got out of my swimming pool in the early evening, I checked the air temperature, and it was 2 degrees celsius, and shortly thereafter it even rained a bit – and rain at this time of year is very abnormal. We always have dry winters and our last rains fall in April.

The real cold hits us in July-August… and I can hardly imagine what the temperatures will be like. Normally, on our coldest days then, the weather is about 10 degrees (I can imagine Canadians & Russians laughing – but for us it is damned cold!) – but I wonder if we won’t be hitting temperatures as low as say, 5 degrees during the day?

Well, I’m hoping for snow. I’ve never seen snow falling.

But let me tell you something about South Africans – especially these minibus taxis – they drive like maniacs. And normally, when we have our summer rains, and our roads are slightly more slippery we also have a lot more accidents – just from a bit of rain.

Now I can just imagine how many accidents there will be if there is snow or ice on the roads…. It should be quite wild. Jan]