Climate
The climate of Swaziland varies from tropical to near temperate. The seasons are the reverse of those in the Northern Hemisphere with December being mid-summer and June mid-winter. Generally speaking, rain falls mostly during the summer months, often in the form of thunderstorms. Winter is the dry season. Annual rainfall is highest on the Highveld in the West, between 1,000 and 2,000 mm (39.4 and 78.7 in) depending on the year. The further East, the less rain, with the Lowveld recording 500 to 900 mm (19.7 to 35.4 in) per annum. Variations in temperature are also related to the altitude of the different regions. The Highveld temperature is temperate and, seldom, uncomfortably hot while the Lowveld may record temperatures around 40 °C (104 °F) in summer.
The average temperatures at Mbabane, according to seasons:
Spring | September – October | 18 °C (64.4 °F) |
Summer | November – March | 20 °C (68 °F) |
Autumn | April – May | 17 °C (62.6 °F) |
Winter | June – August | 13 °C (55.4 °F) |
Read more about this topic: Geography Of Swaziland
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—Thomas Jefferson (17431826)