South Africa Experiences Snow For 22nd Time In 103 Years

Snow in South Africa is rare, in fact it has only snowed in Johannesburg 22 times in the last 103 years, including a rare event on Tuesday morning that sent snowflakes to the ground and residence running into an unseasonably cold outdoors.

Mobile phone cameras quickly began to capture the snow laced sky as residence opened their mouths to grab a taste of the rare snow falling in their front yards across much of the country.

Still in its winter months unseasonably cold weather caught everyone off guard including weather forecasters who were not sure how to report about snowfall conditions because snow is so rare in the region.

While only a small amount of snow fell across the country it was enough to close some high-altitude passes and several border posts for the country.

In some cases enough snow fell for a man to create a makeshift toboggan (pictured above) and slide down a hill on a cardboard box.

By the afternoon hours snow covered rooftops and roads throughout Johannesburg, the first time snow has been witnessed in the city since June 2007.

In Pretoria where U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was visiting the city witnessed its first snowfall since 1968.

While weather forecasters have not yet called for more snow they are warning residents to watch out for several more days of unseasonably cold weather.

I live in Illinois where snowfall is regular and often heavy and people on our roads still freak out at the sight of a single snowflake, I would hate to be driving in South Africa as snow began to fall.