Winter in the lowveld

It is June and that means it is the middle of the winter here in the lowveld. On 21 June the southern hemisphere has it’s shortest day and June/ July are generally the coldest months here.

Now are winters here in South Africa very mild. Although there are areas where some snow can fall, it is more an exception then a rule and here in the lowveld the winters are even warm. Sometimes, after a very cold night, we see some frost on the grass but this quickly dissappears as soon as the sun rises.

When I take the kids to school at half past six in the morning it is “only” 6 degrees Celsius en we find it very cold. When I leave school at half past seven the temperature has already risen above 10 degrees and in the afternoon we often get 26 degrees.
It happens quite often that I sspeak with my family in the Netherlands and that it is here warmer in winter then in the Dutch summer. Despite that, the average African will dress warm with a coat, scarf, hat and even gloves on these “cold” mornings. Many tourists are surprised about this since they don’t find it that cold but once you live here you get used to the heat. Everything below 20 degrees Celsius is “quite cool” and below 10 degrees it’s just freezing cold. During the day it is very nice, especially in the sun, but I wil be glad whenit is August again and it starts to warm up….

Regards from the bush,

Miriam