Climate averages 1991–2020

Richards Bay weather
in January.

A hot, wet month: the 2nd warmest and the wettest of the year.

Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.

Average high 28.6°C Daytime mean, January

Average low 22.4°C Night-time mean, January

Rainfall 108 mm 14 days with ≥1 mm

Daylight 14 h Sunrise to sunset, per day

January is a hot month in Richards Bay: daytime highs average 28.6°C and nights cool to about 22.4°C. By daytime temperature it is the 2nd warmest of the 12 months.

Expect about 108 mm of rain on roughly 14 days, which makes January a wet month (the wettest month of the year). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 13 h 45 min on an average January day.

The nearest other city in this atlas is KwaDukuza (95 km away). In January its highs average 27.6°C, 0.9°C cooler than Richards Bay, with 103 mm of rain.

Among the 95 cities listed in South Africa, Richards Bay ranks joint 25th of 95 for the warmest January highs and joint 50th of 95 for the driest January (rainfall, lowest first). The mean January high of those 95 cities is 27.0°C; Richards Bay is 1.6°C warmer than that mean.

From January to February, average highs rise by 0.1°C to 28.7°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 108 mm to 95 mm.

The annual picture

January in context

30-year average

Average highAverage low°C

Monthly rainfall

Average total · mm

Averages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated

Every month, side by side

Richards Bay climate table

1991–2020

Monthly climate averages for Richards Bay, 1991–2020
Month	Average highHigh / low	Average low	Rainfall mm/month	Rain days ≥1 mm/day	Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day
January, selected	28.6°C22.4°C	22.4°C	108	13.5	13.714 h
February	28.7°C22.6°C	22.6°C	95	11.9	13.113 h
March	28.0°C21.8°C	21.8°C	97	12.3	12.312 h
April	26.2°C19.9°C	19.9°C	79	10.4	11.411 h
May	24.7°C17.7°C	17.7°C	56	7.6	10.711 h
June	23.1°C15.4°C	15.4°C	39	6.6	10.310 h
July	22.6°C14.9°C	14.9°C	47	6.9	10.510 h
August	23.6°C15.9°C	15.9°C	39	7.0	11.111 h
September	24.7°C17.4°C	17.4°C	54	8.2	11.912 h
October	25.0°C18.4°C	18.4°C	79	12.2	12.813 h
November	26.2°C19.8°C	19.8°C	93	13.2	13.514 h
December	27.8°C21.4°C	21.4°C	86	11.7	13.914 h

Rainfall is the average of the 30 separate monthly totals. A rain day is a local calendar day with at least 1 mm of precipitation. Daylight is the calculated sunrise-to-sunset length, not measured sunshine.

Compare places

January in nearby cities

Distance from Richards Bay

Read the numbers correctly

Climate, not a promise.

These patterns help compare months. They cannot tell you the weather on a specific day of your trip.

Sources, method and limits

How these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Richards Bay) is explained once on the Richards Bay year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.