Although it straddles the Tropic of Capricorn, Botswana experiences extremes in temperature. Days are normally clear, warm and sunny, but nights range from cool to bitterly cold in autumn and winter. As with most countries in this region, Botwsana has a wet summer and a dry winter and like its neighbour, Namibia, Botswana's climate is semi-arid.

The summer season begins in November and ends in March and it brings rain and high temperatures. The days are very hot, especially in the weeks before the rains start, with the mercury rising into the 40's Celsius. Rainfall tends to be erratic, unpredictable and often isolated to small areas, so that a torrential downpour may not be noticed as little as 5km away, where the weather could remain dry and sunny. Showers are often followed by strong sunshine, which means a good deal of the rain does not penetrate the ground but is lost to evaporation and transpiration, hence it can get very humid in the summer and the rain is merely a brief respite. Rainfall is highest from the northeast near Chobe down to the southwest part of Kgalagadi District.

April through to August (autumn and winter) has some of the most pleasant weather, with warm clear days, and cold clear nights. Night time temperatures can drop below freezing in some areas, especially in the southwest of the country. As its very dry at this time of the year, the wildlife never strays too far from the water sources like the Okavango swamps and the Chobe River. From late May to August, rain is rare anywhere in the country

With the Kalahari Desert cleaving through most of Botswana, the northern and eastern outskirts of the country offer the friendliest climates.

Reading:
To find out more about Botswana or to bag some books, dvd's or music for your trip, please take a look at the Mud Hut's Reading List!