Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa How cold can it get in South Africa

Early this morning the wife and I left to drop her off at work when I noticed it was pretty cold outside. Looking at the temperature gauge in the car it showed -2 deg C (close to 30 deg F I believe) up here in Pretoria.

After dropping her off I had a statutory cup of coffee with the newspaper and the front page showed why it was as cold as it was. Some snow in Lesotho and the East Cape and in the eastern Free State bogged down a bunch of people. This is the picture on the front page:

The paper describes how people got stuck and how interstate freeways were closed down. The headline loosely translates to: Many saved from the snow.

Many South Africans from 4wheel drive clubs assisted in rescuing stranded people on both sides of the border. The temperature at that time was 7 deg F.

If you are on your way hunting here, a beanie and a scarf will help.

Just another hunting day in Alberta.

You're making it hard to pack you know!

I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Looks like Texas, a couple inches of snow and look out!

Shoot, 30deg F is T-shirt weather in the Dakotas, and probably Canada. But do want to show folks that it DOES snow in South Africa..

Killed my first African animal, a black wildebeest, on June 21 1984 about 100 miles from Pretoria in sleet and light snow. By noon was 60F and quite a pleasant day. Very much like the Texas Panhandle, you should be prepared for anything.

It will have cleared up by the time you arrive I'm sure. Well at least that's what the weather bureau said anyway.

Hunted with some people from Alaska once who were running around in T-shirts in 30 deg weather. Shikes they loved it and I had another coffee.

I have turned soft with age and now wear a sweatshirt after 0 degrees C used to be good with a flannel shirt below that. Not any more.

Showed the pic to my girlfriend and she freaked! She hates snow and the thought of heading to Africa and to be greeted with that did not sit well with her. I told her that we will be a few hours north of that and we shouldn't see any of white stuff!

Good advice. Oftimes it is jacket weather in the mornings and evenings and T-shirt and shorts at mid-day. I wear cargo pants with zippers above the knees. That way I have long pants and shorts in the same garment. A light jacket (of quiet fabric) is also useful.

Was in Namibia once when a cold front came up from Antarctica...it was bone chilling....
Scraped a windshield on a bakkie there more than once...

but never seen any snow per se...

My son and I were a couple days ahead of a snow storm last year while hunting from the Baviaans down through Kokstad.

when my son and I went in 2001, it snowed in the Waterburg Mountains, and there was ice on the Jack Russels water bowl several mornings. on a last minute fluke, I grabbed his gore tex duck hunting jacket and threw it in his duffel, and it had some gloves in the pockets, which were a real life saver. particularly riding around at night in an open car shooting duiker and calling predators. always nice and comfortable by mid morning, though.

When I went in 2010, it was pretty nice, but there were a few windy days when the shorts I took (the only leg clothing I took on recommendation) weren't cutting it! Good thing Andrew was just gifted a XXL jacket that he let me borrow.