It’s cold in Johannesburg.
The coldest it’s been in a decade.
No snow, but almost every day the forecast hints that we might get some. It’s almost like they’re hoping for it. Maybe they are, it hasn’t snowed here since 2012.
The cold snap has come with clouds and rain. Unusual for Johannesburg this time of year. Winter is the dry season.
Before a few days ago, I couldn’t have told you when it last rained, when I last saw a cloud in the sky.
For much of the winter, there’s no need to check the forecast, it will be chilly at night, sunny and, by mid-afternoon, it will be warm. You can sit outside for a bit, have a gin and tonic before you put your sweater on (they call it a “jumper” here, an affection that I have fortunately not picked up. I did, however, start referring to traffic lights as “robots” almost immediately).
We got gin, shortly after alcohol sales resumed, but it’s been too cold for that lately, scotch and red wine are the only things you can drink in this weather (we can buy alcohol again – after the two months of prohibition imposed by the national lockdown – but only from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Thursday).
Joburg isn’t a cold city, not compared to Canada or the Northeastern United States, but winter is winter.
The night time lows are below zero, the other morning there was frost on the fields on the edge of town.
You feel it.
Our windows are single pane, the floors are mostly tile. It’s comfortable in the summer but even though Joburg gets winter, the city seems unprepared.
We have no built-in heaters, just space heaters and an electric blanket. At night I wear a jacket in the house.
In a week or two, I’m sure I’ll be back to singing the praises of South African weather. Of those warm, sunny winter afternoons, of the mild summers and the occasional Highveld thunderstorm, that comes with great force in the middle of the summer, turning the sky black and raining down hail.
But until then, I’m just trying to stay warm.