Extremely Odd Weather in Botswana

This time of the year in Botswana it is very dry, but something extremely rare happened - a June thunderstorm.

This time of the year (which has opposite seasons from the Northern hemisphere) Botswana goes through a long winter drought until the summer life-giving rains arrive.

This week, however, the weather went a bit crazy as clouds appeared and mounted into thunderstorms, drenching the dry Botswana which lies mainly in the Kalahari Desert.

By Wednesday, rainfall nearby 4 inches at the capital, Gabarone. Even more rain, 5.3 inches of it, washed over Orapa, well north of Gabarone. Every area of the nation reported over at least 1 inch of rain, with the hardest-hit spots getting about 8 inches of rain since the start of the week. This is compared to normal rainfall throughout Botswana that ranges from virtually unknown to about 0.25 of an inch.

Rare June rain also hit a few areas of northern South Africa, western Zimbabwe, western Zambia, eastern Namibia and southeastern Angola.