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Rustenburg has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate.
Hot, wet summers and cool, dry winters — here's what that means in plain terms.
What this climate feels like
The four things a regular visitor actually wants to know:
Highs near 30°C in February. About 36 days a year above 32 °C.
Lows near 4°C in July. About 1 freezing nights a year.
About 708 mm of rain a year. Wettest in February.
More sun than cloud through the year.
What "monsoon-influenced humid subtropical" means
Climate scientists sort every place on Earth into about 30 climate types, based on how hot, cold, wet and dry it is across the year. Rustenburg's type — monsoon-influenced humid subtropical — sits in the broad family of mild, temperate climates. Despite the name, winters here still bring real cold; the "subtropical" name refers to summer heat and humidity.
Researchers write climate types as a short letter code. Here is what each letter means:
Cities with the same climate as Rustenburg
A monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Cwa) — these recognizable cities share it. If you know one of them, you know roughly what to expect.
Has Rustenburg's climate type changed?
Stable — Rustenburg's climate has held the same type between the 1971–2000 and 1991–2020 normals. The label is steady; the climate beneath it is still warming.
What this climate means for you
Rice, citrus, tea, sugarcane — the monsoon supports double-cropping. Winter vegetables grow well in the dry, cool months.
The cool, dry winter (Nov–Mar) is the classic travel window. Summer is hot, humid and often disrupted by heavy rain.
Hot, sticky summers with monsoon rains; pleasantly cool, dry winters. Two starkly different halves of the year.
Where these numbers come from
The climate type and the month-by-month figures on this page are computed from Rustenburg's measured 30-year climate normals (1991–2020) — the same official records behind Rustenburg's main climate page, so the two always agree.
Long-range climate maps measure things slightly differently and can place a city in a neighbouring category. Where they differ, this page uses the measured station record as the climate today.
Methodology & sources
Temperature & precipitation — 1991–2020 normals computed from 20 years of daily observations at Pretoria(met), a weather station, about 95 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.