Windhoek month by month — at a glance
Hover each month for the summary. Click to pin it.
01 Nine and a half hours a day
Key moments at a glance
319.3 hours of sun, 0.3 mm of rain and 24.2 °C highs.
Relative humidity of 21 %, the year's minimum, with 28.5 °C by day.
0.0 mm of rain and 0.0 days, but a 6.2 °C mean low.
96.4 mm over 11.2 days and the annual sunshine minimum: 243 hours.
Water is the other side. The annual total is 377.8 millimetres over 49.5 rain days, and it is heavily concentrated: January, February and March account for 267 of those millimetres, seventy-one per cent of the year. Outside that block, precipitation is practically token.
The dry months are dry almost absolutely. June records 0.5 millimetres, July 0.0 and August 0.3, with 0.1, 0.0 and 0.2 rain days respectively. In July, on average, it does not rain on any day. May and September stop at 3.1 and 2.1 millimetres.
02 The driest air on the calendar
In September the mean relative humidity is 21 %. It is the figure that most changes how the heat feels, and almost nobody looks at it.
The mean annual relative humidity is 35.8 %, and it falls to 21 % in September and 24 % in August. Those are desert values. For perspective, most of the tropical capitals we have been looking at move between 70 % and 85 % all year round.
The practical effect is that here the degrees mislead in the opposite direction from usual. October has a mean high of 30.4 degrees, but at 24.5 % humidity it is far more bearable than a January of 30.5 degrees at 46.5 %. In Windhoek, the number to look at when judging comfort is not the thermometer's.
That dry air also has a visual effect noticeable the moment you arrive. The atmosphere barely blurs distance, so the hills at the back appear cut out and detailed from tens of kilometres away. It is a sharpness that in humid climates simply does not exist.
03 The nights nobody expects
Here is the trade-off, and it is the most frequent packing mistake. The city sits at about 1,700 metres, and in air this dry the heat accumulated during the day is lost by radiation as soon as the sun sets. July's mean low is 6.2 degrees and June's 6.9.
The daily temperature range is enormous: in July, with a mean high of 21.3 degrees and a low of 6.2, that is fifteen degrees of range within the same day. And the minimum records in the series are −3.2 degrees in July, −2.8 in June and −1.7 in August.
04 Which month to pick
The best window runs from April to October, and inside it there are two stretches with different character. August, September and October are the most balanced: 0.3, 2.1 and 11.4 millimetres of rain, with 319, 297 and 304 hours of sunshine, highs of 24.2, 28.5 and 30.4 degrees and nights already climbing from 8.5 to 14.8.
April and May are the other option, with 19.4 and 3.1 millimetres and highs of 26.2 and 23.4 degrees. June and July are just as dry and bright, but they should be chosen knowing about the nights: with mean lows of 6.9 and 6.2 degrees, you need genuine warm clothing.
The month to avoid is February, and on two counts: it is the wettest at 96.4 millimetres over 11.2 days and, at the same time, the one accumulating least sunshine, at 243 hours. January and March go with it at 91.3 and 79.3 millimetres. Even so, those figures deserve context: 243 hours of sunshine is still almost eight and a half hours a day.
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