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Most of South Africa has warm, sunny days and
cool nights. Rainfall generally occurs during the
summer months (November to March), although in the
south-west, around Cape Town, rainfall occurs in
winter (June to August).
The temperatures and rainfall are influenced by
variations in elevation, terrain, and ocean currents
more than latitude.
Climatic conditions vary noticeably between east
and west, largely in response to the warm Agulhas
ocean current, which sweeps southward along the
Indian Ocean coastline in the east for several
months of the year, and the cold Benguela current,
which sweeps northward along the Atlantic Ocean
coastline in the west. The effects of these two
currents can be seen even at the narrow peninsula of
the Cape of Good Hope, where water temperatures
average 4�C higher on the east side than on the
west.
Rainfall also varies considerably from west to
east. In the northwest, annual rainfall often
remains below 200mm. Much of the eastern Highveld,
in contrast, receives 500mm to 900mm of rainfall per
year; occasionally, rainfall there exceeds 2,000mm.
A large area of the centre of the country receives
about 400mm of rain, on average, and there are wide
variations closer to the coast.
The south-western corner of the country has a
Mediterranean climate, with wet winters and hot, dry
summers. Its most famous climatic characteristic is
its wind, which blows intermittently virtually all
year round, either from the south-east or the
north-west.
The cold Benguela current sweeps up from the
Antarctic along the Atlantic coast, laden with
plankton and providing rich fishing grounds. This
current retains its moisture, causing semi-arid
desert conditions in much of the
Northern
Cape.
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The great inland
Karoo
plateau (which stretches from the northern
part of the
Western Cape, across the southern half
of the
Northern Cape and the western part of
the
Eastern Cape), is where rocky hills and
mountains rise from sparsely populated
scrubland. It is very dry, and gets more so
as it merges north-west through the
Northern Cape towards the
Kalahari desert.
Extremely hot in summer, the
Succulent
Karoo,
Nama
Karoo and the
Savannah of the Northern Cape can be
icy-cold on winter nights. On high ground in
the Karroo it often gets a sprinkling of
snow in winter.
South Africa's two temperature extremes
have been recorded in the
Northern Cape. In 1948 the temperature
reached 51.7�C in the Kalahari near
Upington, and temperatures in summer are
often in excess of 40�C. The coldest place
in the country is Sutherland in the western
Roggeveld Mountains in the
Succulent
Karroo, with midwinter temperatures as
low as minus 15�C.
The eastern section of the
Karoo does
not extend as far north as the western part,
giving way to the flat landscape and
grasslands
of the
Free State. North of the Vaal River the
Highveld is better watered and saved by its
altitude from subtropical extremes of heat.
Winters are cold but snow is rare.
Further north and to the east,
especially where a drop in altitude beyond
the escarpment gives the Lowveld its name,
temperatures rise. The Tropic of Capricorn
slices through the extreme north in the
Limpopo.
This is also where to find the typical South
African Bushveld of wildlife fame. The best
time to visit for a safari is late autumn
and winter (May to August), when there is
less rain and less dense vegetation, making
animal sightings more frequent.
The east coast has the north-to-south
Agulhas current to thank for its warm
waters, and the ready evaporation of the
Indian Ocean provides generous rainfall in
Durban and much of
KwaZulu-Natal.
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