Country Guide

Namibia is a large country almost two-thirds the size of the Republic of South Africa. It is bordered by Angola on the north, Botswana on the east, and South Africa on the south.

It is very sparsely populated and most of it is desert or semi-desert. The entire coast, part of the Namib desert shared with the west coast of South Africa, receives very little rain and is a complete desert.

Temperatures are kept low most of the time by the cold Benguela current. On a few days each month, particularly in winter, midday temperatures rise quite high when the berg wind blows from the interior.

This is a föhn-type wind bringing very dry air that is heated as it descends to the coast. Apart from the rare shower of rain and the frequent coastal fog, the berg is almost the only weather feature of this arid region.

The interior is marked by low rainfall as well, and much of it is semi-desert or desert. The interior receives some scanty but unreliable summer rain that increases eastwards and northwards. Like most interior deserts Namibia's has a very sunny climate, but, on the coast, cloud and fog reduce the sunshine.

The table for Walvis Bay is representative of the very arid Namib coastal strip where temperatures are kept quite low all round the year by the cold Benguela current.

That for Windhoek is representative of the higher parts of the interior where much land is above 900 m/3,000 ft.