“This morning when the sun rose, it looked awesome,” says Johan Kriegler, CEO of table grape producer Kriegler Farms. Snow has accompanied the rains over the Western Cape, falling last night over the Hex River Valley, not just on the mountain peaks but down the valley to a level where it hasn’t fallen in a very long time.
Photo: Johan Kriegler
“We had incredible snow falls and they are more valuable than rain, it is worth more for the ground water, the moisture sinks down deeper and it chills the atmosphere. We need that cold, the vineyards must go dormant and the cold keeps down insect and pest populations,” he continues. “The vineyards hadn’t even dropped their leaves yet, where usually they’d be bare this time of the year, so we’re happy for the rain but even happier for the snow.”
As for rain, he believes it to be more than 100mm on his farms in the Hex River Valley.
Photo: Johan Kriegler
In the small Banhoek valley behind Stellenbosch, where table grapes and proteas are grown, between 41 and 62mm has fallen on the plum orchards of Mount Joy Farms. They had already had 20mm the weekend before, and mountain streams are trickling through the fynbos. Their farm higher up on the mountain slope received, unusually, the lesser amount of rain. “It’s actually a bit strange, but more rain fell in the valley, usually the rain falls higher up the slope. You can already see that the dams are getting fuller. Also, because of a veld fire earlier the water runs quicker down the slope,” says Wessel Erasmus of Mount Joy Farms. “We’re really grateful and it’s really quite cold.”
The cold is exactly what they want, ideally in a range of 0°C and 9°C. They have finished orchard pruning, now taking care of everything else that needs doing on the farm.
Hex River Valley (Johan Kriegler)
In the Paardeberg area, northwest of Paarl, on Uitkijk Farm, 40mm was recorded along with some snow, bringing welcome cold after a warm May (several consecutive days of 28°C and 30°C) during which some of their wine vineyards started budding. After the cold they’ll start pruning.
Their fig orchards have dropped their leaves and it’s only the lemon harvest that is disrupted by the rain and wet fruit, with some fruit drop due to strong winds. “All in all, it’s good news. It was time,” says Jan Eksteen.
Photo: Johan Kriegler
Further north, close to the Atlantic Coast, Vredendal had only about 5mm and Clanwilliam 15mm, but their eyes are on the Koue Bokkeveld mountain range inland to the east where there is good news: at the time of writing, snow was still falling on the very peaks of Waboomberg near Ceres with up to 140mm of rain recorded up in the Koue Bokkeveld.
Along the Citrusdal valley rain varied between 35 and 50mm, the Cederberg mountains wreathed in cloud which might mean snow, either now or during the coming cold front predicted for next week.
However, the Langkloof was disappointed: barely 2mm fell last night in Joubertina, with strong wind today. Their autumn has thus far largely stayed away. According to the general manager of the Langkloof Co-op, Fanie Grundligh, today is the first cold day they’ve had this winter. They had hoped for more from this storm, as the Langkloof is as dry as anyone remembers seeing it.