Weather in Pietermaritzburg in March

A good month. March works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. You should expect rain on 19 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

March ranks 8 of 12 in Pietermaritzburg: past the worst of the year but short of June, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 19 days, 3 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: 7 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 38.5 °C and the coldest night fell to 9.6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 35 mm — roughly 30% of the month's rain in one day.

March is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest March on record still delivered 199 mm against 71 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 118 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 3.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 80%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How March sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 27.9 °C in February, 27.1 here, 24.8 in April. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: April brings 8 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in March

12.3 hours of daylight, losing 0.9 hours across the month. That is between Pietermaritzburg's extremes of 14 and 10.3 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 19.7 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

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

March in Pietermaritzburg versus nearby

If Pietermaritzburg is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Durban is a better bet in March — within a degree on temperature, 5 days less rain. Johannesburg is a better bet in March — within a degree on temperature, 5 days less rain.

So: March is a compromise. June is 30 points better and is what Pietermaritzburg is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Pietermaritzburg

See all twelve months in Pietermaritzburg, or where else to go in March.