South Africa gets an average of 2,500 hours of sunshine a year according to the South African Department of Energy. By way of comparison, England gets 1,354 hours of sunshine annually. It’s summer at the moment, it wouldn’t be unusual if you assumed that there wouldn’t be much in the way of hail at this time of year, despite summer storms.
However, this past week has seen a fair amount of frozen precipitation in different provinces. Last week, Potchefstroom experienced hail and a storm which caused the North West University’s annual Rag celebration to be put on hold ‘after a storm in the area severely damaged a number of tents and audio equipment on Thursday at its Rag farm’, according to Jacaranda FM.
On Sunday 2 February, the Eastern Cape Town of Alice experienced a ‘massive hailstorm’ with some hail stones as big as chicken eggs. There was also flooding in the streets, which Stuart Pringle photographed and shared with Storm Report SA.
Mr Pringle also shared the video below showing hail falling on Kei Road, north of East London.
Howick in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands also experienced a hail storm on 3 February, with The Meander Chronicle posting a comment that it was ‘looking a bit like hail weather,’ as clouds rolled into the area.
Not long after this, the hail began to fall.
Hail in Howick, in the KZN Midlands, on Monday 3 February. Image credit: Lyn Ventress.
The video below was shared with Storm Report SA by Debbie Pretorius which shows more hail in Potchefstroom on Sunday 2 February.
If you find yourself in a gloomy province and want more summer sun, we suggest a trip to the Northern Cape.
