Climate and travel time

Namibia is located in the southern hemisphere, so it is winter there when it is summer here and vice versa. Namibia's average climate can be briefly described as hot and dry. The largely arid climate is subtropical continental. The country can be visited all year round and every season has its beautiful and unique aspects.

As Namibia is not the classic country for a seaside vacation, the winter months (May to August) are also suitable for a vacation. A visit to the desert regions such as the Sossusvlei is particularly pleasant when temperatures are a little lower. The cooler months are particularly suitable for game viewing in Etosha National Park, for example, as the animals have to come to the waterholes to drink during this dry season, where they can be observed very well. In addition, the bushes and shrubs are often leafless in the dry season and the grasses are shorter, which also contributes to very good game viewing.

Rainfall is extremely rare in the Namib Desert. Even in winter, temperatures often reach 25 °C and above. In the hottest summer months of December and January, temperatures are usually well above 30 °C, while in the coldest months of July to August they can drop to freezing point at night, but then rise again to around 25 °C during the day. The temperature differences between day and night are therefore enormous.

In the inland highlands (e.g. Windhoek), there can even be frost at night during the winter months due to the high altitude. During the day it is not quite as hot there as in the desert - but in summer it often reaches 35°. The Kalahari is similar to the Namib. Rainfall is somewhat more frequent but still rare, which is typical of the desert. The Caprivi Strip in the far north-east of Namibia, on the other hand, is characterized by frequent rainfall. In contrast to the other parts of the country, the humidity here is very high. The Atlantic coast, on the other hand, is characterized by the cool Benguela Current. Temperatures here are significantly cooler than inland, with the water temperature rarely reaching more than 15 °C.

Most of Namibia lies in the tropical summer rainfall area, which means irregular but occasionally very heavy rainfall between November and April; the extreme south, on the other hand, lies in the winter rainfall area, so that rainfall - if at all - occurs mainly in the months of June and July. Despite the irregularity of the rainfall in terms of frequency and yield, it increases significantly from the south with less than 50 mm per year towards the northeast with up to 600 mm per year, although this does not rule out regional dry periods of several years.