Weather and climate

Kafue 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.

Loading the forecast

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 282 mm, daytime highs from 12.4 to 35.0 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	27.2°C	19.0°C	282 mm	26	Flooded and inaccessible
February	26.6°C	18.9°C	229 mm	22	Flooded and inaccessible
March	27.9°C	18.6°C	108 mm	12	Still flooded
April	28.3°C	17.3°C	17 mm	3	Still flooded
May prime	27.2°C	15.0°C	3 mm	1	Wet, camps closed or just opening; access unreliable
June prime	25.5°C	13.2°C	0 mm	0	Wet, camps closed or just opening; access unreliable
July prime	25.2°C	12.4°C	0 mm	0	The window opens around early July; Busanga Plains Camp from 15 July
August prime	28.4°C	14.7°C	0 mm	0	Prime and then peak: the plains dry out, game concentrates, lions near-daily, ballooning from late August
September	32.8°C	18.7°C	3 mm	0	Prime and then peak: the plains dry out, game concentrates, lions near-daily, ballooning from late August
October	35.0°C	21.3°C	27 mm	5	Peak viewing and serious heat, 33 to 38°C and beyond; camps close at month's end
November	30.3°C	19.9°C	149 mm	18	Closing by around early November as the first rains land
December	27.7°C	19.0°C	252 mm	24	Flooding again

Climate figures are Open-Meteo climate normals, 1991 to 2020, taken at -15.3, 26.0. 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.