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Luanda, the capital of Angola, sits on the Atlantic coast of southwestern Africa, on a low, dry coastal plain at approximately 8.84°S, 13.23°E. Although it lies in the tropics, the cool Benguela Current flowing offshore suppresses rainfall and moderates the heat, giving it a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) — warm and humid year-round but surprisingly dry — with the year divided into a warm rainy season and a cooler, foggy dry season. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, its seasons are reversed relative to the Northern.
The hot, rainy season runs from around September or October to April, the local summer, with highs around 29–30°C and warm, humid, sticky nights. This is when almost all of the year's rain falls, in occasional heavy downpours and thunderstorms, though totals remain modest thanks to the cool offshore current. March and April are typically the wettest months, and the humidity can make the heat feel oppressive.
The cooler dry season, from around May to August — known locally as the cacimbo — brings milder temperatures, with highs around 24–25°C, and almost no rain. Its defining feature is persistent low cloud, mist and fog rolling in off the cool Benguela Current, which keeps skies grey and the air damp even without rainfall. This cooler, drier stretch is the more comfortable time of year.
Luanda is dry for a tropical coastal city, receiving only around 325–400 mm of rain a year, almost all of it in the rainy season from October to April, with a pronounced peak around March and April; June and July are effectively rainless. The cool Benguela Current is the reason totals stay so low despite the tropical latitude. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.
Luanda's climate is shaped above all by the cold Benguela Current offshore, which chills the coastal air, suppresses rainfall and generates the fog and low cloud of the cacimbo dry season, giving the city a far drier, mistier character than its tropical latitude would suggest. Heavy downpours in the rainy season can occasionally cause serious flooding in the low-lying, densely populated city.
To follow any single measurement in Luanda more closely, use our live instruments: the online barometer for atmospheric pressure, the thermometer for temperature, the hygrometer for humidity, the anemometer for wind speed, the wind vane for wind direction, and the rain gauge for rainfall.