🇬🇧 London vs 🇿🇦 Johannesburg

Temperate oceanic — mild, cloudy, and notoriously changeable year-round

London's weather is famously mild but grey. It rarely gets very hot or very cold, but expect cloud cover most of the year. Summer (June–August) brings the best sunshine and warmth. Rain falls year-round but rarely in heavy bursts.

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.