🇿🇦 Cape Town vs 🇿🇦 Johannesburg

Mediterranean — hot dry summers (Southern Hemisphere), mild wet winters

Cape Town has a classic Mediterranean climate but in the Southern Hemisphere — summers are December–February (hot and dry) and winters are June–August (cool and wet). The Cape Doctor (southeast wind) can make summer days dramatically windy. Table Mountain creates local weather patterns.

Johannesburg sits on the Highveld plateau at approximately 1,750m above sea level, giving it a subtropical highland climate with warm, thunderstorm-prone summers and dry, crisp winters with frequent frost. The city straddles the continental divide between the Limpopo and Vaal river systems, creating subtle drainage and elevation differences that influence local weather patterns. The world's largest urban forest — over 10 million planted trees — significantly modifies temperatures across the city, while mine dumps, ridges, and vast disparities in building density create pronounced microclimate variation between neighborhoods.