Snow on Table Mountain (Cape Town, South Africa)!

After a solid day or two of storming across the Cape, our dams are 90-97 percent full.

But most shockingly, Table Mountain had snowfall!
That's probably a once in a lifetime event (OK it snowed an eeny bit in 2011, but this is something else).

For images and more see:
www.2oceansvibe.com...
snowreport.co.za...

Is this just paradoxical "global warming"?

Incidentally, what creature is this on Table Mountain's snowy tapestry?



It is indeed a "dassie" or rock Hyrax.
Some call it a "rock rabbit", although its closest cousin is actually the elephant.
en.wikipedia.org...

a reply to: halfoldman


About a week ago they had snow in New South Wales outside of an alpine area.

Oh, this would be perfect weather for Christmas.

Why can't we move it from 25 December to 3 of September?

It would be so atmospheric.

The earth is sad that an orange man is bad?

I kid, I always love how we in our ego driven ways think we know what the planet we live on is going to do. We have no idea. We may never know.

Anyway, enjoy the snow - fresh snow is always so nice. I think one of the nicest things in the world is waking up to 6 plus inches of snow and listening to the quiet that happens once the storm passes and before the animals start leaving tracks and so on. It's like a natural mental cleanser.

The indigenous Khoisan people called it the place where the clouds meet (historical sources vary, but they decided on this recently).

More stunning snowfall on our sacred Table Mountain.

originally posted by: halfoldman
After a solid day or two of storming across the Cape, our dams are 90-97 percent full.

But most shockingly, Table Mountain had snowfall!

Incidentally, what creature is this on Table Mountain's snowy tapestry?

It is indeed a "dassie" or rock Hyrax.
Some call it a "rock rabbit", although its closest cousin is actually the elephant.
en.wikipedia.org...

Funny enough, I would have called it a Pine Marten.

With apologies to Toto's song "Africa":

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the snow down in Africa

Did you know that up to the early 20th century Victorian map-makers believed that the Sahara Desert and more equatorial Africa were divided by an impressive mountain range called "The Mountains of the Moon", that ran halfway across East Africa (also once believed to be the source of the Nile).

This was Rider H. Haggard stuff ("King Solomon's Mines").
And because nobody bothered to really explore it, tales of a majestic snow-capped mountain range across Africa were believed.

Nevertheless I believe such yarns were truly inspired by Table Mountain, where most travelers began their journey into Africa.
I mean there are many other nice mountains across Africa (Kilimanjaro or the Drakensberg), but none greets you like Table Mountain.
One of the current 7 wonders of the natural world. The 'New 7 Wonders of Nature' are:

The Amazon. The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest and is one of the world's most diverse biological areas. ...
Halong Bay, Vietnam. ...
Iguazu Falls, Argentina / Brazil. ...
Jeju Island, South Korea. ...
Komodo, Indonesia. ...
Puerto Princesa Underground River, Philippines. ...
Table Mountain, South Africa.
www.gapyear.com...

a reply to: halfoldman

what's up half, long time.

here ya go,

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

Thanks bro, always a fantastic song that.

At the same time almost a foot of snow almost from Laramie to Cheyenne Wyoming..

Well you guys are pretty far south down there in SA. If it happens again next year, we can blame the ever shifting poles.
I only seen snow for two weeks of my life. If it ever snows in florida again will probably be tje panhandle.
Nice view though.

a reply to: halfoldman

The baboons have been more relentless in Constantia than I have encountered them before. I wonder if the cold has been driving them down from the mountain?

a reply to: halfoldman

Interesting. In Europe, the summer started late and ended early. Raining like mad now.

Cheers

On a Kibbutz 1995 right up near Mt Hermon where it snows in winter indeed they have a ski resort there.................it was teeming with us Brits also rucks of South Africans too.

I can't remember where they were from specifically but it was Africaans speaking from somewhere up north Johannesburg or rural but north they also very religious praying in groups all the time, anyways when it started snowing they went into some sort of ecstatic state of amazement. Running around catching it in their hands studying it, in a state of wonder.

Asked them out of interest what the big deal was with a bit of snow, they said never experienced snow in their lives and this could be a once in a lifetime moment for them Wowzers those folk were fun

The rock hyrax reminds me of a woodchuck, but with fangs.
What do they taste like?
Chicken, right?

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

Not in this part of Europe, here in Portugal we are having a perfect Summer day.

originally posted by: ArMaP
a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

Not in this part of Europe, here in Portugal we are having a perfect Summer day.

Not surprising considering how far south Portugal is. The summer pattern has been abnormal more or less on latitudes north of the Main Valley.

Cheers

a reply to: halfoldman

Interestingly before the last glacial maximum which lasted about a hundred thousand years until just over 12000 years ago the planet was WARMER than it is today, the gulf stream was probably slower due to less salty ocean's, the jet stream was probably also less active and this led to the planet becoming colder without the warming affect of these two regulating circulatory systems on the ocean and the atmosphere.

SO perversely global warming which is both occurring naturally and also through human activity which is speeding it up will not necessarily turn our planet into a hot house, it could instead precipitate the advent of a premature new global glaciation as desalination of the ocean's from the melting of the current remaining glaciers will do that and that in turn will slow or even stop the oceanic conveyor the so called gulf stream (in the Atlantic that is it's name) and this in turn will stop the updraft of warm ocean air warmed by these currents in the northern Atlantic adversely affecting the jet stream an atmospheric circulation system similar to the ocean conveyor that is partially powered by this rising warm air from the ocean's and this in turn will then lead to colder winters, more ice and snow on the hill's, glaciers starting to grow again but at an incredible rate, famine and failed harvests due to bad winters and colder shorter summers and this will lead eventually to most of Europe and North America once again being covered in two or three miles of ice, the ocean's becoming saltier and shallower, land that has not seen the light of day that is now under more than 200 feet of water being exposed as the ocean's retreat, the desert of the Sahara possibly getting more rainfall and after the catastrophe settles down survivors of the old first world living in the remains of the old third world having forgotten what came before except for legends of there fall, of there once shining mighty city's were the god's flew through the sky in shining chariot's and the light's never went out.

Rinse repeat we have probably done all this before in one form or another, still we just may be spread out enough and our knowledge distributed enough for our civilization to survive this time around, there are probably more of us in the world as well.

(of course this is all assuming we might have had a previous civilization - might have and very far off topic, in a nutshell, last glaciation began after a warmer period than today, todays warming may lead to a new colder period, we may see the likes of Europe, North America and most southern extremity's of Africa and South America becoming much much colder than they are today as well as a result)