Monday Geology Picture: Snowy South African Mountains

Snowy mountains 1. — A snowy mountain landscape along the N2 highway in the Western Cape, South Africa.

This past winter was fairly cold here in South Africa. Somewhat unusually, many of the tops of the mountains in the Western Cape were periodically dusted with snow. There was even snow on Table Mountain in Cape Town.

During a recent backpacking trip along the Tsitsikamma Trail, my friends and I experienced some cold night-time temperatures although there was no snow in the Tsitsikamma region. However, when we were driving back to Cape Town after the hike, we noticed several snowy peaks in the distance. The picture above was taken a couple of hours outside of Cape Town along the N2 highway. I’ve seen snow before in the Western Cape, but this year’s snow was more impressive than what I saw previously.

The weather has been warmer recently, so hopefully that means that spring has finally arrived here in the Western Cape!

Monday Geology Picture: Snow in South Africa

Snow way on the top of mountains in South Africa's Cape Fold Belt, June 2013. — Snow way on the top of mountains in South Africa’s Cape Fold Belt, June 2013. Click to enlarge the picture for a better view of the snow.

Here’s something you don’t see every day: snow in South Africa! In late June my husband and I drove from Cape Town to Robertson, South Africa to visit my husband’s grandmother. It had been fairly cold and rainy in Cape Town for much of June. As we were driving through the mountains of the Cape Fold Belt, we noticed that there was snow on the tops of some of the mountains. We snapped a couple of pictures, including the one above, as we drove past the snow-capped South African peaks.

Winter Blizzard

My fiance, my two cats, and I are currently up in New Hampshire visiting my parents and sister for Newtonmas. We have decided not to drive back down to Woods Hole today because of this:

Winter storm from StormPulse. Image taken a few minutes ago. Click on the image for a larger version.

An enormous winter storm is fast-approaching our house in southern New Hampshire.We’ll probably receive a foot to a foot-and-a-half of snow. I think that it’s already wintry mixing on Cape Cod. I much prefer a foot of snow to a foot of wintry mix, so we’ve decided to stay here in New Hampshire a couple more days.

By this evening we should be able to sled down the driveway and cross-country ski around the neighborhood. Cross-country skiing with my South African fiance is always entertaining. He saw snow for the first time just two years ago, and he is fascinated by “wild ice” as there is only “domesticated ice” in South Africa. He is clueless about winter sports such as skiing and ice skating, though he is very enthusiastic about them. On skis he doesn’t really know how to stop, so he just crashes to stop. He’s improving slowly, though.

Whenever there is a large winter storm or hurricane, I enjoy tracking these storms using StormPulse and the NOAA Storm Tracker.

Storms such as the one about to hit New Hampshire remind me of how fragile we humans and our civilization are relative to the intense power of natural forces such as blizzards. There have been snowstorms all over the globe recently- in the Western USA, all over Europe, and even in Australia— and it’s summer there! These storms are wreaking havoc with holiday travel. Last week, a friend of mine spent three nights sleeping in the Amsterdam airport.

I’m glad that we’re able to weather this winter storm safely at my parent’s house. We have plenty of food and water. There are two gas-burning stoves and plenty of candles and flashlights in case the power goes out. We have skiis, sleds, and snowshoes in abundance. And, of course, we have hot chocolate. What else could we need? Happy snowstorm, for those of you in New England.