Does it snow in South Africa?
South Africa. The huge, amazing country that has gone through many different difficult situations, and it is still standing as one of the most important regions of the whole world.
But this country isn’t only incredible jungles and lions and elephants wilding around, it is also known for its very unique climate and sub-climates, and their amazing locations. And today, we’re going to take a look at them!
SNOWIEST MONTH
July
August
SNOWIEST PLACES
Eastern Cape
Western Cape
AVERAGE SNOW
Few inches
❄ Does it snow in South Africa? 🇿🇦
⛅ Climate of South Africa
When you think about South Africa, you think about one of the biggest countries in the whole continent of Africa, which is true, specially when you actually look at the size of it.
South Africa is huge, and we mean huge. Its incredible size combined with their unique location is what causes South Africa to have what most people call, an unique climate.
Just think about it, geographically, South Africa is located between two different oceans (Atlantic and Indian), it’s right in the southern hemisphere, and lies in the middle of the tropical zone.
All of these things combined it’s what gives South Africa their unique (and we must say, pretty nice) climate, which happens to be a subtropical climate, with many, many subclimates and weathers all coexisting within the same region.
As a matter of fact, South Africa is well known for being the African country with the most different sub-climates, unlike their neighbor countries, which have a pretty regular climate almost everywhere.
Amongst the many different sub-climates South Africa has, we can find the following ones:
- Hot desert
- Semi arid
- Hot summer mediterranean
- Humid subtropical
- Oceanic
- Subpolar oceanic
It is worth to mention that South Africa isn’t only the country with more sub-climates in the region, but it is also the only one where temperatures can get very low during the winter time.
Of course, this happens at a great altitude (which we will see later on), but the fact that such a warm country manages to experience really low temperatures is simply incredible.
🌨 When does it snow in South Africa?
We known, the words "snow" and "South Africa" don’t really go together, do they? Like, they sound almost a little bit strange when you think about snow in one of the hottest countries on Earth.
But, believe it or not, snow in South Africa is possible. Sure, it might not be as much as you might expect (again, we will talk about that soon) or as often as expected, but it does snow, that’s for sure.
However, before we get to talk about that, we must take a look at the different seasons that this country experiences:
- First, let’s start off with spring time, which happens from September to November, and it’s probably one of the nicest seasons in the country, since the weather isn’t too hot nor too cold, it’s simply really nice.
- Then, after Spring season comes summer time, of course, which starts right in December and ends in February. During the summer season temperatures are rather high, there’s little to no rain at all, and the sun is up all day, almost every day.
- After summer times comes autumn or fall, which happens from March all the way to May, and brings with it some very nice and more cool-down weather, with much more fresh temperatures.
- Last, but definitely not least, comes winter time (yes, there’s winter in South Africa) which starts in June and ends in August. Again, the weather during this season is really nice, and temperatures tend to be lower than they were during the summer and spring time..
Now that you know all the four seasons that happen in South Africa during the year, you must be thinking, then when is it snow time? When does snow time occurs? And, as you might have been expected, it happens during the winter time, of course.
As to whether or not does it snow during Christmas time, the answer is no.
🌨 Where does it snow in South Africa?
Like we just previously said, it doesn’t snow everywhere in South Africa, as a matter of fact, it only snows in some very specific places during the winter time, meanwhile the rest of the country doesn’t get snow at all.
The most popular places when it comes to snowing in South Africa are the mountains of Eastern Cape and Western Cape.
☃ How much does it snow in South Africa?
It is extremely important to mention that just like it doesn’t snow in every region of South Africa, you can’t expect snowfalls to be the same in every region that it does snow, since it doesn’t work like that.
As to how much does it actually snow in South Africa, is hard to know, since precipitation also counts rain, and during the winter time, South Africa can experience an average 14 inches (35 cm) of precipitation!
⛷ Skiing in South Africa
Fine, now you know about when does it snow in South Africa, which places to go to see some snow and how much snow there’s is, but let’s get to the fun part, where to ski in South Africa? Well, here are some places you might want to check out:
Tiffindell Ski Resort
This is probably the most popular ski resort in all of South Africa, and definitely the place you need to go if you really wanna experience some ski action in the country!
Afri-Ski
If you are ready to slide down some amazing snow slopes and enjoy and incredible view, this place is the right for you! It’s also very popular, so don’t forget to plan out in advance!