Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, sits in the southeast of the country on a plain near the South African border, at around 1,000 metres above sea level on the edge of the Kalahari, at approximately 24.65°S, 25.91°E. It has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) — hot, wet summers and mild, very dry winters — with a large day-to-night temperature range and abundant sunshine. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, its seasons are reversed relative to the Northern.

Summer, from October to March, is hot and the rainy season, with highs around 32–33°C and warm nights, occasionally climbing higher in heatwaves. This is when nearly all of the year's rain falls, in dramatic afternoon and evening thunderstorms that build in the heat and green the semi-desert, though the rains are unreliable and droughts are common. Humidity rises during the rains but the heat rarely feels tropical.

Winter, from May to August, is mild, dry and sunny by day but cold at night, with July the coolest month — highs around 22–23°C but nights that can drop close to or below freezing, bringing frost. Rain is essentially absent, skies are clear and blue, and the large gap between warm days and cold nights is characteristic of the high, dry interior. This dry, sunny season is very pleasant by day.

Gaborone is dry, receiving only around 500–540 mm of rain a year, almost all of it in the summer wet season from November to March, with a peak around December and January, while the winter from May to September is nearly rainless. The rains are erratic and drought is a recurring problem for the region. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.

Gaborone's weather is shaped by its position on the edge of the Kalahari: hot, thundery, unreliable summer rains give way to a long, dry, sunny winter with cold nights and frost, and the whole region is prone to drought when the summer rains fail. The elevation moderates the heat and produces the large day-to-night temperature swings typical of the semi-arid interior of southern Africa.

To follow any single measurement in Gaborone 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.