Country Summary
This page presents high-level information for Zimbabwe's climate zones and its seasonal cycle for mean temperature and precipitation for the latest climatology, 1991-2020. Climate zone classifications are derived from the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system, which divides climates into five main climate groups divided based on seasonal precipitation and temperature patterns. The five main groups are A (tropical), B (dry), C (temperate), D (continental), and E (polar). All climates except for those in the E group are assigned a seasonal precipitation sub-group (second letter). Climate classifications are identified by hovering your mouse over the legend. A narrative overview of Zimbabwe's country context and climate is provided following the visualizations.
Located between latitudes 15°–23°S and longitudes 25°–34°E, Zimbabwe is a landlocked country neighboring Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, and South Africa. It is endowed with abundant natural resources with total land area of 390,757 square kilometers, and a population of over 14.6 million in 2019. According to the World Bank estimations, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country reached $21.4 billion in 2019. The annual GDP growth peaked at 11.9% in 2011 and has been decreasing since: in 2019 the annual GDP growth rate was at −8.1%, well below the average annual GDP growth of low-income countries (4.4%). Zimbabwe is subject to a complex physical and climatic structure. According to Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification, northern Zimbabwe experiences subtropical climate with dry winter and hot summer; and southern area faces hot arid and steppe climate.
The country’s economy is largely dependent on services sector, followed by industry, agriculture, and manufacturing). As indicated in its first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), the key sectors to boosting Zimbabwe’s economy – including agriculture, water, energy, forestry, tourism, and industry, among others – are also susceptible to abrupt climate variability. Climate change is likely to adversely impact Zimbabwe’s key economic sectors as well as its livelihoods. With climatic variability increasing, natural disasters will occur more frequently and have the potential to hit the most vulnerable parts of the population, the poor, in a disproportionate way since poor people are often overexposed to these hazards. In other words, natural disasters can push people into poverty as a result of their impacts.