🇿🇦South Africa

South Africa spans multiple climate zones: Mediterranean conditions in the southwestern Cape with winter rainfall, subtropical climates in KwaZulu-Natal with summer rainfall, semi-arid Karoo plateaus, temperate Highveld elevations, and the arid Kalahari fringe. Mean annual temperatures have risen since 1940.

The major 2015–2018 Cape Town Day Zero drought brought a large city close to running out of water, restricting residents to 50 litres per day and exposing extreme vulnerability to multi-year rainfall deficits. The April 2022 KwaZulu-Natal floods killed over 430 people, destroyed critical infrastructure, and demonstrated how intense rainfall systems can overwhelm drainage capacity in rapidly urbanizing coastal zones. The June 2017 Knysna fires destroyed hundreds of homes along the Garden Route. Vredendal reached 48.4°C in October 2015, close to South Africa's national record of 48.8°C set at Vioolsdrif.

Our archive covers 75 South African cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The hottest July afternoons are in Phalaborwa, with average highs around 24.5°C, while Ermelo has the coldest January nights, with average lows near 13.7°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.2°C.