Weather and climate

Mana Pools National Park weather

What it is doing right now, what the next two weeks look like, and what each month of the year means for the game viewing.

Right now in the park

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The next two weeks

Straight from the forecast, updated when you open this page. Useful if you are packing. Not useful for choosing a month, which is what the year below is for.

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The year at a glance

Bars are rainfall, the line is the daytime high. Thirty-year averages. The green band marks the months this park is at its driest, which is when most people want to be here.

Rainfall in millimetres along the bottom. Highest month 183 mm, daytime highs from 14.2 to 36.9 degrees.

Every month, and what it means for the wildlife

The temperature tells you what to pack. The rainfall column decides what you will see.

Month	Day	Night	Rain	Wet days	What that means here
January	30.6°C	22.6°C	183 mm	16	Closed in practice. The wettest, most humid months; roads impassable, wildlife dispersed in thick bush. Superb birding that almost nobody can reach.
February	29.7°C	22.2°C	155 mm	13	Closed in practice. The wettest, most humid months; roads impassable, wildlife dispersed in thick bush. Superb birding that almost nobody can reach.
March	30.8°C	22.1°C	49 mm	5	Closed in practice. The wettest, most humid months; roads impassable, wildlife dispersed in thick bush. Superb birding that almost nobody can reach.
April	31.2°C	20.9°C	5 mm	0	The park reopens as the soil dries. Clear skies, around 29°C, animals still dispersed but improving. The best birding month, with summer migrants still present, and low-season value.
May	28.8°C	17.3°C	2 mm	0	First month of the dry winter: around 27°C by day, 10°C at night, and the year's best air clarity. The photographer's month. Walking country opens up as vegetation dies back.
June prime	26.8°C	14.9°C	0 mm	0	Reliably dry and sunny with cold nights. Game starts gathering along the Zambezi.
July prime	26.6°C	14.2°C	0 mm	0	Mid-dry season and the start of peak rates. Animals concentrate on the river, walking is at its best, and Mana's nights are noticeably warmer than Hwange's.
August prime	29.4°C	15.9°C	0 mm	0	Approaching its best. Warming days, the first dust and bushfire haze, and the carmine bee-eater colonies arrive on the sandbanks.
September	33.7°C	20.2°C	0 mm	0	The best all-round month: superb wildlife, the year's most comfortable weather, rarely below 15°C at night. Books out up to a year ahead.
October	36.9°C	24.0°C	2 mm	0	Wildlife viewing at its absolute peak, and the famous heat: the valley floor routinely tops 40°C. Peak month for the standing elephants as the winterthorn pods drop. Visitor numbers actually dip because of the heat.
November	35.1°C	24.4°C	50 mm	6	A gamble. Early November can be outstanding at low-season rates; once the first rains arrive, usually mid-month, viewing collapses and camps scramble to close.
December	31.5°C	22.8°C	127 mm	13	Closed in practice. The rainiest month; camps shut and the valley returns to itself.

Climate figures are Open-Meteo climate normals, 1991 to 2020, taken at -15.95, 29.4. The wildlife column is ours, from the sources on the best time to visit page. Averages hide bad years: a dry January still happens, and so does a wet July.