🇳🇦Namibia

Namibia lies mostly between latitudes 17° and 29°S as a southern African country (approximately 825,615 km²) on the South Atlantic coast bordering Angola, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa, with a 1,572 km coastline along the cold Benguela Current. Namibia is one of the world's most arid countries; its landscape is dominated by one of the world's oldest deserts (the Namib, arid for at least 55 million years, with the towering Sossusvlei dunes), the central Khomas Highland, the Brandberg massif in the northwest whose summit Königstein (2,573 m) is the country's highest point, the eastern Kalahari sand-veld, and the lush Caprivi (Zambezi) Strip in the far northeast on the Zambezi and Cuando rivers.

This exceptional topography produces an extraordinary climate spectrum: cool coastal desert (BWk) on the Namib coast at Lüderitz and Walvis Bay, where the cold Benguela produces persistent fog and remarkably mild temperatures despite the latitude, hot desert (BWh) in the inland Namib, hot semi-arid (BSh) on the central plateau around Windhoek, and the country's highest rainfall in the Caprivi.

Windhoek at over 1,600 m elevation sees highs of 21°C and lows of 6°C in July and highs of about 31°C and lows of 17°C in January with 360 mm rainfall, mostly December–March. Walvis Bay on the cold Atlantic stays cool all year and receives almost no rain, an extraordinary example of cool-coast aridity. Lüderitz on the Atlantic sees highs of 18°C and lows of 10°C in July and highs of 21°C and lows of 14°C in January with 17 mm, cool to mild all year.

Keetmanshoop records highs of 21°C and lows of 6°C in July and highs of 35°C and lows of 19°C in January with 160 mm. Tsumeb in the north receives more rain than the central plateau. Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi receives about 650–700 mm. The Königstein summit is markedly cooler than the surrounding plains.

Major events include the severe 2024 drought and the 2018–19 multi-year drought, both declared national emergencies, the severe 2013 drought, and the severe 2008 and 2009 floods in northern Namibia, including the Caprivi.

Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.8°C.