Maseru month by month — at a glance
Hover each month for the summary. Click to pin it.
01 Minus one on average
Key moments at a glance
22.1 °C by day, 7.6 °C by night and only 56 mm over five days.
25.5 °C, 61 mm and nights back to 9.8 °C, before the storms.
−1.0 °C mean low and 16.8 °C mean high. The driest month: 12 mm.
28.3 °C, the year's peak, and 147 mm spread over 11 days.
The daily range is the feature that explains almost everything. In July the mean high is 16.8 degrees and the mean low −1.0: almost eighteen degrees of difference within the same day. At midday you can be comfortable in long sleeves; at dawn there is frost on the ground. It is not a cold climate, it is a climate of very wide contrasts.
Dry air and altitude are responsible. At 1,600 metres and with very little humidity, the heat accumulated during the day is lost by radiation as soon as the sun sets, and there is no mass of water vapour to hold it. In summer the same thing happens on a smaller scale: January reaches a 28.3-degree high but falls to 14.7 at night.
02 The water comes with the heat
Maseru's rainfall calendar is exactly the opposite of what a European traveller expects. Here it rains in summer, not in winter. January adds up to 147 millimetres over 11 days, December 106 and February 121. The annual total is about 786 millimetres spread over a little more than 73 rain days.
The form of that rain matters as much as the amount. They are afternoon convective storms that build over the mountains and unload hard for a while. It is not all-day drizzle: the morning is usually clear and the water arrives once the ground has warmed. Eleven rain days in January means eleven interrupted afternoons, not eleven lost days.
03 Why the dry winter misleads
July is the driest month of the year, at 12 millimetres. It is also the only one with the mean low in negative figures. Dry does not mean comfortable.
A quick glance at the rainfall table leads to the wrong conclusion. From May to September it rains very little — 28, 19, 12, 17 and 27 millimetres — with one or two rain days a month. On paper, it is the perfect season. In practice, it is when the night thermometer crosses zero and dawn brings frost.
There is also a detail of altitude worth being clear about. Maseru, at 1,600 metres, is among the country's lowest points. Any excursion inland gains several hundred metres, and with them the thermometer falls further. If the city's July mean low is −1.0, on the higher ground snow is a routine phenomenon, not a curiosity.
04 Which month to pick
April is the best month of the year, and by a reasonable margin: 22.1 degrees by day, 7.6 by night and 56 millimetres over five rain days. Summer has let up, winter has not yet arrived and the afternoon storms have stopped organising. March is second, with 25.4 degrees and 98 millimetres.
October is the other good window: 25.5 degrees, 61 millimetres and nights recovered to 9.8. September works if you do not mind 6.9 degrees before dawn, because in exchange barely 27 millimetres fall and days reach 24.
Which months to dodge depends on what bothers you more. If it is the water, avoid December, January and February, at 106, 147 and 121 millimetres. If it is the cold, avoid June, July and August, with mean lows of −0.4, −1.0 and 2.4 degrees. And if you come in those three months anyway, the advice is textbook: layers, and genuine warm clothing for the first hour of the day.
