Common - but wrong - beliefs : act 1

"Oh, you're going to live in South Africa ? It's gonna be very warm, there !"
I have heard that several times before leaving. In most people's mind, "Africa" is closely linked to "heat", "sun", even "desert". I guess if you go to Mali or Sudan, it's not completely wrong. But in this particular case, the word "South" in front of "Africa", seems to make quite a big difference. For Europeans (or people from the north hemisphere in general), going south is a synonym of looking for warmth ! But of course, in the south hemisphere, it just means going away from it.

All I want to say here, is that I'm freezing ...

Trying to watch TV. The small heater is now my best friend ... And I will not cut my hair.

It looks exaggerated, doen't it ? Now look at this graph, showing the temperature since I arrived ...

Temperature trend in Jo'burg, from May 15th to June 4th [source : http://www.wunderground.com]

It was OK at the beginning : 16 degrees by day, 12 by night, not too bad, even with the very, very bad thermal isolation here. But look at the night of Just 1st, and you'll understand that I was really freezing. Because -3 degrees, when all you have between yourself and the outside, is a window (and OK, 7 blankets), the least cm2 of your body that's out of the blankets freezes ! And I mean, this is real, the grass is frosted in the garden every morning !
On the positive side, the trend seems to be an increase of the temperature after a cold front ... ;-) And it's good because it's more and more difficult to start my wreck in the morning !

The immediate consequence is on the food. The salad, tomatoes, etc., that I bought because my body internal clock was still in summer, are still in the fridge ... And I cook winter stuff, lentils, soups, etc. !!

Lentejas con chorizo.

Judias blancas con chorizo y morcilla.

Unfortunately, I will soon run out of good Spanish products !

OK now, some facts about Jo'burg ...
Johannesburg is on the 26th parallel (south), a sub-tropical zone. But it is in altitude (~1800m above sea level), therefore the weather is rather temperate. Summers (December, January) are warm but not too hot (about 25 degrees Celsius), usually sunny with heavy showers and thunderstorms(*) in the evening. Winters are mild, but with a dry and clear weather, very sunny. Temperatures in winter can drop to a few degrees during the day, especially during "cold fronts", i.e. when the wind comes from the Drakensberg mountains (Lesotho) and bring the cold. This is the general picture.
From my humble experience, so far, it's a fairly good picture. When I came in February, it was very warm, rather sunny, and every afternoon there was a heavy rain lasting no more than 1 hour. This cools down the temperature, and with the clouds you can see wonderful sunsets. For the winter weather, I think this year is particularly cold (at least, it's what people tell me), but usually when there is a cold front, it is only a few days and then it's much better. I hope so !
I should mention also that South Africa has a quite large variety of climates. If you go north, it becomes warmer, even in winter -- also because you get lower in altitude. If you go south-east, towards Durban, it is more tropical : humid and warm all year (and rather hot in summer). South and south-west, towards the Cape, it is usually very humid (rain) in summer, and cold in winter. West and north-west seems warmer.
Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to check all this by myself, but I'll try to ;-)




(*) Johannesburg is the city in the world that is most often hit by lightnings ...