Behind Kruger Park's Climate

Like other semi-arid regions of the world, the Kruger National Park is subject to great variations in rainfall from year to year. This is because the Kruger National Park is situated beneath a zone of dry, descending air.

Kruger National Park’s climate, like the rest of the subcontinent, is influenced by anticyclonic systems that move over southern Africa from west to east. In summer, these systems give rise to extremely hot and dry conditions that can persist for up to two weeks at a time, often followed by the development of low-pressure cells over the interior that draw in moist equatorial air from the north and northeast. It is this moist air that underpins the development of thunderstorms. However, the low-pressure troughs often produce widespread and persistent rain.

Kruger National Park is occasionally subjected to tropical cyclones in summer, as was the case in 2000. These cyclones develop over the Indian Ocean near the equator when the sea temperature rises above 27°C. As they cross the Mozambique Channel they amass more moisture and often cause extensive flooding accompanied by the destruction of roads, bridges and in extreme cases camps and settlements.

During winter, these anticyclonic conditions over the interior result in fine and mild conditions that occasionally yield cloudy and cool weather when cold fronts penetrate from the south.

Rainfall in the KNP tends to be cyclical with 10 years of above average rainfall followed by ten years of below average precipitation. Even during high rainfall periods, the high summer temperatures cause high evaporation rates that reduce the effectiveness of the precipitation.

The climate of the Kruger National Park goes from wetter cooler weather in the south and west to drier hotter weather in the north and east. This variety of weather conditions cuts across the diverse geological belts of the Kruger National Park to provide a wide range of habitats, accounting for The Park’s diverse fauna and flora.