Climate
The city has a moderately dry subtropical climate, specifically a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cwa), with long hot and rainy summers and short cool and dry winters. The average annual temperature is 18.7 °C (65.7 °F). This is rather high considering its relatively high altitude of about 1350 metres and is due mainly to its sheltered valley position, which acts as a heat trap and cuts it off from cool southerly and south-easterly air masses for much of the year. Rain is chiefly concentrated in the summer months, with drought conditions prevailing over the winter months, when frosts may be sharp. Snowfall is an extremely rare event; snowflakes were spotted in 1959, 1968 and 2012 in the city, but the city has never experienced an accumulation in its history. During a countrywide heatwave in November 2011, Pretoria experienced temperatures that reached 39 °C (102 °F), extraordinarily unusual for that time of the year.
| Climate data for Pretoria | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 36 (97) |
36 (97) |
35 (95) |
33 (91) |
29 (84) |
25 (77) |
26 (79) |
31 (88) |
34 (93) |
36 (97) |
39 (102) |
35 (95) |
36 (97) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 29 (84) |
28 (82) |
27 (81) |
24 (75) |
22 (72) |
19 (66) |
20 (68) |
22 (72) |
26 (79) |
27 (81) |
27 (81) |
28 (82) |
25 (77) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 18 (64) |
17 (63) |
16 (61) |
12 (54) |
8 (46) |
5 (41) |
5 (41) |
8 (46) |
12 (54) |
14 (57) |
16 (61) |
17 (63) |
12 (54) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 8 (46) |
11 (52) |
6 (43) |
3 (37) |
−1 (30) |
−6 (21) |
−4 (25) |
−1 (30) |
2 (36) |
4 (39) |
7 (45) |
7 (45) |
−6 (21) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 136 (5.35) |
75 (2.95) |
82 (3.23) |
51 (2.01) |
13 (0.51) |
7 (0.28) |
3 (0.12) |
6 (0.24) |
22 (0.87) |
71 (2.8) |
98 (3.86) |
110 (4.33) |
674 (26.54) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 14 | 11 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 87 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 261 | 235 | 254 | 246 | 283 | 271 | 289 | 296 | 284 | 275 | 254 | 272 | 3,220 |
| Source #1: South African Weather Service | |||||||||||||
| Source #2: The Weather Network (sun only) | |||||||||||||
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Famous quotes containing the word climate:
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)