The climate of Pietermaritzburg
BSh Hot semi-arid (steppe). Dry and hot, but with enough rain for grass. A band of dry grassland and scrub, usually found on the edges of hot deserts. It gets more rain than a desert, but still not enough for most trees.
Pietermaritzburg is south of the equator, so its seasons run the opposite way to those in Europe: summer falls in December to February and winter in June to August. The 1901 to 1930 map put Pietermaritzburg in Cwb (subtropical highland (dry winter)), so its zone is different from a century ago.
Pietermaritzburg: then, now and by 2100
| Map | Climate zone | Compared with now |
|---|---|---|
| 1901 to 1930 | Cwb Subtropical highland (dry winter) | Different from now |
| 1991 to 2020 (now) | BSh Hot semi-arid (steppe) | - |
| 2071 to 2099, SSP1-2.6 (low emissions) | Cfa Humid subtropical | Different from now |
| 2071 to 2099, SSP2-4.5 (middle of the road) | BSh Hot semi-arid (steppe) | Same as now |
| 2071 to 2099, SSP5-8.5 (high emissions) | BSh Hot semi-arid (steppe) | Same as now |
The 2071 to 2099 rows are model projections under three emissions scenarios, not forecasts. The 1901 to 1930 row is a reconstruction. All come from Beck et al. (2023).
Under the middle-of-the-road scenario (SSP2-4.5), the model keeps Pietermaritzburg in BSh in 2071 to 2099. The high-emissions scenario (SSP5-8.5) gives the same answer.
Cities with the same climate as Pietermaritzburg
Other big cities that are BSh (hot semi-arid (steppe)) in 1991 to 2020, at most two per country:
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Population of Pietermaritzburg from GeoNames: 839,327 (rank 702 in our list of 1,000). Climate data: Beck et al. (2023), CC BY 4.0. Data sources and licences.