General Climatic Conditions in South Africa

Climate Zones

• Cape Town
• Garden Route
• Karoo

Cape Town and Surrounds

Cape Town is positioned on the 34th latitude south, which equates it more or less with Casablanca, Los Angeles or Sydney. It is, nevertheless, considerably cooler in Cape Town, due to the cold Benguela current from Antarctica in the Atlantic Ocean west of the city. However, Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate. In summer it is usually pleasantly warm. The hottest days are often cooled by the Cape Doctor, the famous South-Easter, which keeps the city free of pollution.

It seldom rains in summer, and only briefly when it does. The winters are cool and wet, but the temperature hardly ever falls below 10 C. The water temperatures in the Atlantic are low, due to the above-mentioned Benguela current, but east of the city the influence of the Indian Ocean is noticeable, and the beaches and seaside places on that side of the Cape Peninsula are more populated. The beaches in the west do have the advantage of protection from the South-Easter by the Table Mountain massif.

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The Garden Route

The Garden Route has a Mediterranean maritime climate with moderately warm summers and mild winters. The Garden Route is one of the richest rainfall regions in South Africa. The rain, brought by the humid sea-winds from the Indian Ocean, falls at the weather side of the mountain slopes.

The western part of the Garden Route belongs to the winter rain zone of the Western Cape. The closer one gets to Port Elizabeth, the more the rainy season shifts towards the summer months. However, one can basically expect some rain throughout the year.

The best time to travel is in the spring and summer months (from September to April). The rest of the year is rather cool and wet.

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The Karoo

The Karoo, the central high-plateau of South Africa, is surrounded by the mighty mountain chains of the escarpment. The rain, brought by the humid sea winds, goes down over the weather side of the mountain slopes, so that the lee side stays basically dry. Therefore, the endless grassland of the Karoo gets as little as 400 mm of rain annually, which falls mainly in summer. The winter months are almost completely dry. Precipitation gets even lighter towards the north-west. In the upper Karoo it rains on average less than 200 mm per year, which makes it an arid, semi-desert zone (meaning that precipitation is less than the rate of evaporation).

Due to the average altitude of 1200 m on the central high-plateau, temperatures in summer are usually bearable, although the thermometer reading can sometimes go over 35 degrees Celsius. Towards the north-west, in the direction of the Kalahari basin, due to the lower elevation, temperature are even higher. (100m difference in altitude corresponds to 1 degree temperature difference.) In Upington, for example, at the lower Orange River, one can expect temperatures of around 40 degrees in summer. The best time to travel in the Karoo is between May and September. During the day, it is pleasantly warm and sunny (20 - 25 degrees C), and at night it gets cool enough for a good sleep.