Extremely cold temperatures to hit Harare

THE Meteorological Services Department has warned of a cold front, which is expected to move across Zimbabwe from today up to Saturday, with Harare set to record a low of SEVEN degrees Celsius today.

The cold weather is expected to become even more severe in the coming three weeks.

Bulawayo, Matabeleland South, Masvingo and parts of Manicaland provinces are expected to experience severe cold weather.

“Harare and Bulawayo Metropolitan, parts of Midlands, Mashonaland East, Matabeleland South, Masvingo and Manicaland provinces – it should be cold at first, with clear skies and chances of ground frost in frost-prone areas,” the Met Dept said in a statement.

“On the other hand, mostly sunny but mild day-time conditions are anticipated in Matabeleland North, northern districts of Midlands, Mashonaland West and Central, becoming cool towards the evening.”

Principal Meteorologist, James Ngoma, said people must keep warm as temperatures will be cold, windy and it will be cloudy until Saturday.

“We are expecting more clouds to filter in from Wednesday into the weekend.

“We advise people to keep warm during this period.

“We are expecting most of the temperatures to be below 20 degrees for areas such as Matabeleland South into Masvingo, as well as parts of Manicaland province.

“Most of those areas should have temperatures in the teens (between 13 and 19 degrees Celsius).”

He said temperatures will continue to drop throughout the month.

“We are still in the good zone. It’s actually called the cool category, then it will get to the cold and the very cold.

“People will be wearing jerseys only, but as the month goes on, they might be wearing a jersey and a jacket,” said Ngoma.

He said this was not the peak of winter.

“Winter is still upon us and these systems come and go, so we shall keep people better informed as we go through the season.

“Winter officially started on May 1 and the peak of winter comes on the winter solstice, which is around June 20 to 21,” said Mr Ngoma.

The winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year.

-Hmetro