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Has the climate in Mafeteng changed?

Mafeteng has warmed about 0.5°F between 1973 and 2024.

About 0.1°F per decade, measured from Mafeteng's official daily weather records, 1973–2024. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.

Is that a lot? Mafeteng's climate has warmed more slowly than most other cities across Africa.

What has actually changed

Each card compares the 1970s (the first ten years of the record) with recent years (the last ten) — the same span the headline and the chart use.

Freezing nights
33 more nights
1970s
33 / yr
Recent
66 / yr
Colder winters — more frosts
Average temperature
about the same
1970s
61.3°F
Recent
61.4°F
Year-round temperature has barely moved
Hot days above 90°F
40 more days
1970s
25 / yr
Recent
65 / yr
More days of serious heat
Rainy days
13 fewer days
1970s
73 / yr
Recent
60 / yr
Drier on average

Mafeteng's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 1973 to 2024.

56°58°60°62°64°1973: 61.6°F1974: 57.3°F1975: 61.4°F1976: 57.7°F1977: 60.4°F1978: 60.4°F1979: 61.6°F1980: 61.6°F1981: 59.5°F1982: 61.3°F1983: 63.6°F1984: 63.6°F1985: 63.4°F1986: 63.1°F1987: 63.3°F1988: 61.1°F1989: 60.6°F1990: 61.9°F1991: 60.7°F1992: 62.2°F1993: 61.7°F1994: 58.8°F1995: 61.2°F1996: 58.5°F1997: 59.4°F1998: 59.8°F1999: 61.5°F2000: 59.3°F2001: 61.0°F2002: 62.3°F2003: 63.7°F2004: 62.4°F2005: 60.9°F2006: 58.2°F2007: 59.4°F2008: 60.7°F2009: 59.9°F2010: 61.1°F2011: 61.6°F2012: 60.8°F2013: 61.5°F2014: 61.5°F2015: 63.5°F2016: 63.5°F2017: 61.7°F2018: 61.8°F2019: 62.9°F2020: 60.1°F2021: 59.5°F2022: 60.4°F2023: 60.8°F2024: 62.3°Flong-term trend1973198019902000201020202024
a warmer-than-average year a cooler-than-average year

Each bar is one year. Most recent years sit above the older ones. Some recent years still came in cool — warming is a slope, not a straight climb.

In day-to-day terms, that long-term shift shows up as about 19 more freezing nights a year and about 23 more days above 90°F compared with the 1970s.

When in the year the change shows up

How much warmer each month is now than in the 1970s. Useful if you garden or care about a particular season — otherwise the headline above already has the answer.

-2.0°-1.5°-1.0°-0.5°0.0°+0.5°+1.0°January: -1.6°F-1.6JFebruary: -0.2°F-0.2FMarch: -0.1°F-0.1MApril: -0.9°F-0.9AMay: +0.0°F+0.0MJune: -0.1°F-0.1JJuly: -0.2°F-0.2JAugust: -0.3°F-0.3ASeptember: -1.3°F-1.3SOctober: +0.4°F+0.4ONovember: -0.1°F-0.1NDecember: -0.4°F-0.4D

January has cooled the most — about 1.6°F. The warming runs across the whole year, not just one season.

Methodology & sources

Temperature — 1991–2020 normals computed from 28 years of daily observations at Bloemfontein Airpor, a weather station, about 121 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →