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Mpumalanga month by month — at a glance
Hover each month for the summary. Click to pin it.
Mpumalanga is visited almost always for Kruger and the Blyde canyon, and almost nobody checks the rainfall calendar before booking. That is a mistake with consequences: in Mbombela, the provincial capital, 9 millimetres of rain fall in June and 131 in December. Everything you see here, and everything you put up with, depends on that contrast.
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01 The rain arrives in summer and leaves all at once
Mpumalanga has a summer-rainfall climate. In Mbombela the monthly record is clear: 127 millimetres in January, 108 in February, 90 in March and 51 in April. By May it is 15, and from June to August between 9 and 10 a month. Between May and August the total is 44 millimetres, less than December alone.
The wet season is not evenly spread either: from November to March 74 per cent of the annual total of 767 millimetres falls. And it rains often: 15 rainy days in November, 14 in December, 14 in January. In June and July there are 2.
Key moments at a glance
9 millimetres and 2 rainy days in Mbombela. Days of 23 degrees and nights of 6, with dry grass and open bush.
10 millimetres of rain and a 25-degree high in Mbombela. Nights stop being so cold (a 9-degree low).
75 millimetres and 11 rainy days in Mbombela. This is the month when the bush begins to close in.
131 millimetres and 14 rainy days in Mbombela, with a 28-degree high. It is the wettest month of the year.
02 A step of more than a thousand metres
The province is split by the Drakensberg escarpment. To the west lies the Highveld, a grass plateau at roughly 1,700 to 2,300 metres above sea level. To the east the Lowveld opens out, a low savanna, and between them the ground drops sharply. That difference in height changes the climate more than latitude does.
The figures show it. On the Highveld, at Belfast, the average low in June is 1 degree and the high 15; in January it is 12 and 23. In the Lowveld, at Mbombela, the June low is 6 degrees and the high 23; in January, 19 and 29. Down there the cold stays in the nights; up above it often freezes, and the Lowveld almost never does.
Mbombela has recorded −2 degrees in June, though that is exceptional. The usual pattern is the opposite: a winter of warm days and cool nights. Anyone climbing to the Highveld or to Graskop (1,436 metres) needs warm layers even if they set out in short sleeves below.
03 Kruger in winter: fewer leaves, more visible animals
At Skukuza, Kruger's main camp at 271 metres above sea level, the 1991-2020 normals give 110.9 millimetres in January and 8.7 in August. June and July have 9.5 and 11.4. In other words: from May to September the park is nearly rainless, and the waterholes become the centre of life in the bush.
Safari guides agree on the essentials: in the dry season the vegetation is sparser, animals concentrate along rivers and pools, and the park is quieter. They also note the drawback: dirt roads fill with dust. Mornings are cold and a jacket is welcome in an open vehicle, because at Skukuza the average low falls to 5.8 degrees in June.
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In Kruger, winter is not the low season of the landscape: it is the season in which the landscape lets itself be read.
04 The green canyon and the escarpment mist
The Blyde River Canyon is 26 kilometres long and counts among the largest in the world. It is called the «green canyon» because, unlike others, it is covered in subtropical vegetation. That vegetation needs rain, and the escarpment is the part of the province that receives the most; even in winter occasional drizzle appears there, when the rest of the territory gets almost none.
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For the Panorama Route lookouts, such as God's Window, there is another variable: visibility. Travel guides note that from May to September the air is drier and views are cleaner, while from October to April the escarpment often produces morning mist. It is not a mathematical rule; it is a probability, and so it pays to leave spare days and check the forecast before driving up.
05 What winter does not give you
Summer has its own arguments. With the rain the bush fills with leaves and the grass grows tall. Guides place the births of many species in the wet season, which is also the best time for birds. In exchange, the animal is harder to see: foliage hides it, and highs at Skukuza hover around 33 degrees from December to March.
The escarpment waterfalls, such as Mac-Mac, are fed by that rain, and the canyon landscape reaches its most intense green. The rain comes mostly as summer thunderstorms, so the approach changes: outings in the morning and slack in the afternoon. Anyone travelling then has to accept less visibility in exchange for more life.
06 How to pick your dates
If your priority is seeing animals and clear lookouts, choose May to August. These are the four months with 15 millimetres or less a month in Mbombela, 23 to 25 degrees by day in the Lowveld and nights between 6 and 10 degrees. June and July are the heart of the dry season; August extends it with a little more warmth.
If you prefer green scenery and birds, try March or April: the rain is already easing (90 and 51 millimetres) and the bush is still covered. September and October are transition months, with growing heat: a 27-degree high in Mbombela and the rain returning from October.
And if your only date is December or January, the trip is a different one: more heat, more humidity and storms almost every afternoon, in exchange for a landscape at its greenest. It works if you know it before you leave. A practical note: the Western Cape rains in winter and Mpumalanga in summer, so anyone combining both regions in July and August will find this one at its best.
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