Will it ever snow in Durban?

By Tash Reddy

It snowed in Durban in 1929 - right? Wrong.

Urban myth has it that it did snow, but the Local History Museum says it was actually a hailstorm. However, many of the city's older residents are still adamant the city was covered in snow.

"I was six years old and remember waking up one morning and the lawn was covered in snow. Everything was white and at first we thought it was hail, but someone said that it was actually snow. I was there - I saw it," said 82-year-old Celene O'Connor.

Since 1929, a legend has been passed down from generation to generation about the carpet of snow that once covered the city.

But newspaper cuttings from the time reveal that 76 years ago, on the morning of June 26, 1929, a heavy hail storm made Durban look like a glistening fairyland, with streets, trees, buildings and lawns lined in white.

In 25 minutes the night before, the city was covered in ice when a freak storm, accompanied by a hurricane, dropped tennis ball-sized hailstones.

Torrential rain and hail pelted down on the streets of Durban, causing chaos and mayhem. Hundreds of people ran for refuge and motorists abandoned their cars in the streets. Glass in buildings shattered, gutters were filled with ice and roofs came crashing down as about 10cm of hail covered West Street and Smith Street in a field of ice.

No building escaped damage: the Post Office clock was holed in four places and plants were stripped of their leaves, causing damage estimated at the time of about £100 000.

Historians believe the storm originated when two cyclonic storms met over the town, one from the west and one from the south west.

They then moved east and the storm broke over the Berea below the Ridge and swept on over the heart of the city, where it reached its height and then moved down to the beach and out to sea.

The southern fringe went as far as Umbilo and in the north it stopped at Clarence Road, cutting cleanly across Greyville race course. The Point only caught the subsiding effects of the storm.

The late cold spell Durban experienced last week and early this week poses the question whether Durban could be in for another freak "snow storm".

But the South African Weather Bureau's seasonal forecaster, Peggy Motshe, said they were expecting normal conditions for the rest of October, November and December.

"In October we are expecting a daily average maximum temperature of 24°C and a minimum of 17C. The expected average rainfall in October is 98mm. In November we are expecting a daily average maximum temperature of 25°C and a minimum of 18°C. Rainfall for November is expected to be 108mm," Motshe said.

Holidaymakers should expect 102mm of rainfall in December.

And the Christmas season will also see normal weather conditions, with the average daily maximum being 27°C and the minimum 20°C.