Climatology
This page presents Zambia's climate context for the current climatology, 1991-2020, derived from observed, historical data. Information should be used to build a strong understanding of current climate conditions in order to appreciate future climate scenarios and projected change. You can visualize data for the current climatology through spatial variation, the seasonal cycle, or as a time series. Analysis is available for both annual and seasonal data. Data presentation defaults to national-scale aggregation, however sub-national data aggregations can be accessed by clicking within a country, on a sub-national unit. Other historical climatologies can be selected from the Time Period dropdown list.
Observed, historical data is produced by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of University of East Anglia. Data is presented at a 0.5º x 0.5º (50km x 50km) resolution.
Zambia experiences a predominantly sub-tropical climate characterized by three distinct seasons: a hot and dry season (mid-August to mid-November), a wet rainy season (mid-November to April) and a cool dry season (May to mid-August). Rainfall is strongly influenced by the movement of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) as well as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon and varies from an annual average of 600 mm in the lower south up to 1,300 mm in the upper north of the country. Climate is tropical by location near the equator. The annual rainfall in Zambia averages between 700 mm in the south and 1,400 mm in the north. The hot months are very dry, receiving almost no rainfall between May and August. The wet season (September-April) rainfall is controlled by the passage of the tropical rain belt (also known as the Inter‐Tropical Conversion Zone, ITCZ) which oscillates between the northern and southern tropics over the course of a year, bringing rain between October and April of 150‐300 mm per month.
Variations in the movements of the ITCZ can cause large variations in the rainfall received from one year to the next. Rainfall in Zambia is also strongly influenced by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which causes further inter‐annual variability. El Niño conditions (warm phase) bring drier than average conditions in the wet summer months (December-February) in the southern half of the country, whilst the north of the country simultaneously experiences significantly wetter‐than average conditions. The reverse pattern occurs with La Niña (cold phase) episodes, with dry conditions in the north and wet conditions in the south.