Weather in Johannesburg in April

Prime time. April is about as good as Johannesburg gets. Highs average 22.8 °C, lows 8.9 °C, and rain falls on 8 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

April ranks 6 of 12 in Johannesburg: past the worst of the year but short of August, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 8 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average April reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest April day reached 29.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -0.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 49 mm — roughly 114% of the month's rain in one day.

April is moderately variable: 7 mm in the driest year against 107 mm in the wettest, around an average of 43 mm. Roughly two Aprils in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 6.9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 62%.

How April sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 2.9 °C cooler than March, with May dropping another 2.4 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip. Rain is the thing that moves: May brings 6 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in April

11.5 hours of daylight, losing 0.7 hours across the month. That is between Johannesburg's extremes of 13.8 and 10.5 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 25.6 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 1767 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets.

How busy it gets

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself. April is the value pick for Johannesburg: it scores within 12 points of August without carrying August's prices.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

April in Johannesburg versus nearby

If Johannesburg is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Pretoria is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.4 °C warmer, 1 day less rain. Pietermaritzburg is close enough to be a coin toss — 2 °C warmer, 3 days more rain.

So: April works, with August the better month by 12 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Johannesburg

See all twelve months in Johannesburg, or where else to go in April.