The unusual icy cold weather made residents of the Soutpansberg put on every piece of warm clothing they could lay their hands on.

Mark Todd from the Pretoria Weather Office said that Makhado (Louis Trichardt) had a maximum temperature of 16ºC on Tuesday, June 27, and a minimum of 6ºC. The minimum and maximum temperatures for Polokwane for the same day were given as 0ºC and 13ºC and for Musina as 12ºC and 18ºC. Musina had a high minimum temperature because of cloud cover.

“This cold weather for your area is very unusual. A cold front moved through the area and behind the cold front is normally a surface high pressure. This one is particularly strong and brings in air from far south, like polar air,” Todd said.

Levubu had temperatures ranging from 6ºC to 16ºC on Tuesday and a forecast for Wednesday of 6º and 18º. Mara recorded a minimum of 9.3ºC and maximum of 17ºC on June 26. In Polokwane, the thermometer plunged to zero on Tuesday.

Todd said that, although it was unusually cold, it was not the coldest June ever.

The databank of the weather office unfortunately had no weather data on Louis Trichardt, since there is no weather station. The data for Musina have been recorded since 1934 and Thohoyandou’s data start from 1983.

Believe it or not, the lowest minimum temperature ever recorded in Musina, was -3.6ºC in June 1964. In the period 1934 to 1980, below-zero temperatures were recorded 11 times in Musina at the Messina Macuville Weather Station.

Thohoyandou recorded an extreme minimum temperature of 2.9ºC in June 1988. The lowest minimum between 1997 and 2006 was 5.3ºC and that was recorded this month on June 7.

Temperatures have definitely dropped, compared to last year. The average minimum temperatures last year in Thohoyandou for May and June were 12.7ºC and 11.3ºC. This year, in May, the average was 11.1ºC and 10.2ºC in June, measured from June 1 to 25. The temperatures are more than one degree lower.

In Musina, the average minimum temperatures last year in May and June were 13.5ºC and 11.3ºC. This year in May it was already 10.6ºC and the temperatures for June were not available. The lowest minimum temperature in June last year was 6ºC on June 30.

Hot weather marked the beginning of June last year in Thohoyandou with maximum daily temperatures of more than 30ºC, with the lowest maximum being 23.7ºC on June 22 . This year in June, so far, the average is 24.5ºC. The coldest day at noon was Friday, June 23, when the maximum was 20.6ºC.

Musina averaged 28.2ºC last year in June and this year. Though the June statistics are not available, the May average maximum was 28.3ºC indicating a much lower June average.