Chatsworth bride Simone Aricksamy's dream of a white wedding came true last week - literally - when snow fell at the venue for her nuptials in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands last Saturday.
Snowfall is common in the Drakensberg, but it created a first-time winter wonderland for residents in Bergview, Hilton and Alverstone.
For the Aricksamy couple, the snow was the perfect backdrop to their special day at the Providence Country Weddings venue in the midlands.
Aricksamy, 31, said she had made peace with having a rainy wedding day, but was amazed when it began to snow as she walked down the aisle.
"I was completely shocked that we were blessed with snowfall," she said.
But experts say the effect of climate change on weather patterns in the province doesn't bode well for food and water security, while climatologists have warned KwaZulu-Natal residents to brace themselves for more extreme weather.
Dr Alistair Clulow from the University of KwaZulu-Natal's department of agricultural, earth & environmental sciences, said changes will result in a loss of jobs on farms, food insecurity, a higher risk of flooding in informal settlements, and water shortages.
"Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases trap energy within our atmosphere. Some of that air escapes into space but the amount escaping is reduced as a result of increased greenhouse gas concentrations.
"Our weather patterns are driven to a large extent by energy released and stored. So more energy potentially means more violent and frequent extreme weather events.
"This snow, however, was the result of a well-developed cold front carrying moisture and moving in from the polar regions to the south of SA," he said.
He said that even though climate change can be blamed for the extreme changes, more intense and frequent extreme weather is not easy to predict.
"This includes heatwaves, cold conditions, floods, drought, high winds, storms and tornadoes, among others.
"Changes are gradual, but the whole planet will be affected by climate change. It's difficult to say exactly what will happen in Durban, but there is concern about rising sea levels in coastal areas combined with flooding from intense rainfall events."
Professor Mark New, director of the African Climate & Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town, said farmers have to be more flexible in their long-term agricultural planning because the province faces uncertainty about rainfall in years to come.
New said that in addition to the unexpected snowfall, KwaZulu-Natal remains a mystery in terms of what will happen with rainfall.
"We use sophisticated climate models to do simulations of what the future climate is going to look like; if greenhouse gases increase et cetera. And the results for SA show that just about the entire country is likely to see a decrease in rainfall - but the models don't produce consistent results over KZN. We don't know for sure whether rainfall is going to increase or decrease in the province - which makes planning a little bit tricky, especially when you are in the agricultural sector," he said.
"The impact of this could be more severe than we think, as growers of maize and other rain-fed crops such as wheat could experience poor seasons if rain doesn't fall, as they would be taken out of their temperature range which is suitable for their development."
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.