A rare snowfall dusted Johannesburg and other high-lying parts of South Africa on Monday, with weather services warning of potential road closures and dangerously cold temperatures. | Above: A child plays in the snow at Laerskool Orion, a school located in Brackenhurst, a suburb south of Johannesburg.
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Residents in the business hub woke up to snowfalls lightly covering rooftops and gardens as a cold front that hit the country late last week morphed into a weather system called a "cutoff low."
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At a Johannesburg kindergarten, excited children made snowballs and attempted to catch flakes with their tongues - some having never witnessed snow before.
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Children play in the snow at Laerskool Orion, a school located in Brackenhurst, a suburb south of Johannesburg.
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"We last saw this type of weather in 2012," said Puseletso Mofokeng, a senior forecaster at the South African Weather Service (SAWS).
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Mofokeng said snow was reported across southern parts of Johannesburg's Gauteng province and was expected to continue falling throughout the day, also hitting high-lying areas of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. "Roads may be closed," he said.
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SAWS warned that icy temperatures posed a risk to street dwellers in a country where poverty remains widespread. Rough seas and strong winds were also expected to create hazardous conditions for small vessels off South Africa's eastern coast.
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A man leads horses as snow falls in Delta Park, in Johannesburg.
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People take photos as snow falls in Zoo Lake park in Johannesburg.
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Johannesburg lies at an altitude of more than 1,700 metres (5,600 feet) and is in the peak of the southern hemisphere winter. But snow in the city remains a rare event - prior to 2012, heavy snowfall occurred in 1996, Mofokeng said.
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"It's been such a long time, I feel so happy," said Lerato Matepese, a Johannesburg resident.
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Children play in the snow at Laerskool Orion, a school located in Brackenhurst.
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A general view of snow at a plaza in front of an office building in Johannesburg.
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Garbage collectors work as it snows in Brackenhurst.
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