South Africa is a climate patchwork of warm coastal subtropics, hot deserts, humid highlands, snow-topped mountains and an enclave of Mediterranean weather in the southwest.
South Africa ’ mho farseeing coastline – some 2,800 kilometres – influences much of the climate. On the west coast is the cold Atlantic Ocean, and the warm indian Ocean on the south and east .
Starting at the hot and arid defect frame with Namibia in the northwest, South Africa ’ randomness coastline runs south down the cold Skeleton Coast, around the Cape Peninsula to Cape Agulhas. This is the southernmost tap of Africa, said to be where the Atlantic and indian oceans meet. In fact, it ’ south hera, slightly offshore, that two coastal currents meet, currents that determine the different coastal climates. The cold Benguela current sweeps the west seashore, and the strong Agulhas current the east .
From Cape Agulhas the coastline moves east and slowly northwards, and the climate becomes warmer and wetter. The western Cape ’ s pretty green Garden Route gives way to the forested Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape, and then humid subtropical KwaZulu-Natal slide, celebrated for its beaches. In the northeastern, the coast reaches the bound of Mozambique.
Running along most of the coast is a narrow low-lying comic strip of nation, which soon gives manner to a higher tableland – the Great Escarpment. The high elevation of South Africa ’ s inner means the area is by and large much cooler than southern hemisphere countries at the same latitude, such as Australia .
Sun and rain
South Africa is celebrated for its fair weather – an average of 2,500 hours of sun every year. It ’ s a dry state, classified as semi-arid. The average annual rain for the whole of South Africa is about 464 millimeter. The global average is about 860mm .
Most of South Africa gets rain only in the summer. The region around the Cape Peninsula, including Cape Town, has a mediterranean climate : cold and measly rain in winter, balanced by glorious clear-sky summers. But Cape Town is most celebrated for its grim year-round wind, which blows from either southeast or the northwest .
natal ’ south seashore and areas of the Mpumalanga lowlands get warmly rain all class .
The great inland Karoo tableland, where rough hills rise from scrubland, is dry, and gets drier in the northwest towards the Kalahari desert. It ’ s a area of extremes : very hot in summer and icy in winter .
The easterly Karoo gives way to the flat landscape of the Free State, which gets a little more rain .
The highveld area union of the Vaal River is wet, with balmy weather and less extreme point subtropical heat. Johannesburg lies at 1,740 metres above sea level, and has an annual rain of 760 millimetres. Winters on the highveld are cold, but snow is rare .
far north and east the highveld drops down into the lowveld. Temperatures rise, and the land turns to typical bushveld, the habitat of South Africa ’ second wildlife .
South Africa is the southerly hemisphere, then midwinter is in the center of the year and high summer in December and January .
Spring – September, October, November
In spring South Africa warms up from the top down. It quickly gets very hot in the army for the liberation of rwanda north province of Limpopo, and the abandon regions of the Northern Cape and North West .
The southwest stays cold and wet well into give, distinctive of its Mediterranean climate. The seashore in the south and west gradually gets more rain, and humidity rises .
In the remainder of the area the weather gets pleasantly warm and cheery, before the summer rains begin .
The rains, generally mid-afternoon thundershowers, start in about mid-october .
Summer – December, January, February
Over much of South Africa, summer means warm, cheery weather – frequently with afternoon thunderstorms that clear quickly, leaving a strong and down-to-earth spirit in the air .
The arid regions of the central Karoo and Northern Cape get very hot, with some stand-in in more rain. Northern Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal are besides much exhaustingly hot .
The Northern Cape – a state of weather extremes – gets the blistering weather, and the temperature records. In 1948 the mercury hit 51.7°C ( 125°F ) in the Kalahari near the town of Upington.
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The high altitude of the department of the interior tableland keeps average summer temperatures below 30°C, so summer is warm without being oppressive .
summer is the temper of rain in most of South Africa, changing much of the nation from khaki to green. It ’ s by and large warm rain, delivered in short and swamp storms. The Cape Peninsula in the southwest is the exception, staying clear-skied and cheery all through summer .
Autumn – March, April, May
In fall South Africa ’ s weather comes into its own. The days are hush long and strong, getting chillier – but placid bracing and cheery – in the early dawn and even .
The showery season comes to an end in fall, leaving the skies clear and the sunlight shining. By May most of South Africa has settled into its dry season, which will last through winter and well into spring .
fall comes at the end of the dry season on the Cape Peninsula, thanks to the region ’ second Mediterranean climate .
here the fall upwind is beautiful, with hot cheery days and ardent, balmy nights. It ’ s only in May, a calendar month from winter, that the rains begin again .
Winter – June, July, August
South Africa ’ s winter is by and large pleasant cheery weather with cloudless amobarbital sodium skies, punctuated now and then by a few days of cold fronts .
In the senior high school home tableland winter days are dry and cheery, with clear skies and wrinkle breeze. The nights are chilly. Temperatures only drop curtain to freezing when a cold front sweeps in .
cold fronts mean heavy snow on the mountains of the western Cape and Northern Cape, and on the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg. When it snows on the mountains, icy weather cursorily spreads to the stay of the state .
The coldest locate in South Africa is the Northern Cape town of Sutherland, in the western Roggeveld Mountains. here midwinter temperatures can drop to -15°C ( 5°F ) .
The westerly Cape gets all of its rain in winter. The winter weather in Cape Town is constantly cold, wet and unpleasantly airy .
By contrast, the hot, humid KwaZulu-Natal slide, and the lowveld of Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces, offer lovely winter weather with still, cheery and warm days .
Researched and written by Mary Alexander.
Updated 16 July 2021.
Comments ? Email mary1alexander @ gmail.com
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