The largest sheet of falling water on Earth, on a river whose flow varies enormously through the year. Daytime highs in Victoria Falls and the Zambezi run from about 24 °C in July to 34 °C in October, an annual range of roughly 10 °C.
Measured against a city trip, the conditions hold up May to July. June is the most consistent single month: highs near 25 °C, nights around 11 °C, and roughly 0 mm of rain across the month.
The binding constraint here is temperature and rainfall — that is what rules months out, not any composite judgement. Rainfall is sharply seasonal: January averages 223 mm against 0 mm in June, so the wet season is the real planning constraint rather than heat or cold. January is the weakest month on these criteria.
August sit just outside the window — part of the month works and part does not. These are usually the interesting weeks: conditions are close to the peak-season answer while prices and crowds are not. The map lets you check them fortnight by fortnight rather than trusting a monthly average.
What Victoria Falls and the Zambezi is known for
- The falls are about 1,708 m wide and 108 m high, producing spray visible from 50 km away
- Peak flow after the rains can obscure the falls in their own spray; low water exposes the rock face
- Devil's Pool, on the Zambian lip, is only safe to swim during the low-water months
- The local name, Mosi-oa-Tunya, means 'the smoke that thunders'
- Chobe in Botswana, with one of Africa's densest elephant populations, is a short drive
Month by month
| Month | High °C | Low °C | Precip mm | Wet days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28 | 20 | 223 | 22.0 |
| February | 28 | 20 | 160 | 17.6 |
| March | 28 | 19 | 92 | 13.8 |
| April | 28 | 17 | 29 | 4.9 |
| May | 26 | 14 | 5 | 0.6 |
| June | 25 | 11 | 0 | 0.3 |
| July | 24 | 11 | 2 | 0.1 |
| August | 28 | 13 | 4 | 0.0 |
| September | 32 | 17 | 0 | 0.4 |
| October | 34 | 20 | 16 | 2.9 |
| November | 32 | 21 | 83 | 12.9 |
| December | 29 | 20 | 188 | 20.5 |
Ticked rows are months where every hard requirement for a city trip is met across at least half the month.
By trip type
| City | May to July |
| Hiking | no month clears every limit |
Each row applies that trip type's own hard limits to the same climate data.
Open Victoria Falls on the map →
Nearby regions
Figures are 30-year climatology sampled at Victoria Falls town, Livingstone and Zambezi National Park, averaged across those locations, from ERA5-Land reanalysis fitted with a harmonic seasonal cycle and a trend term, evaluated for 2026. Sampling named towns rather than averaging the whole region avoids blending valley and mountain conditions into a figure true of neither. Cells are about 0.08° wide, from ERA5-Land's 0.1° grid, which is itself driven by a 0.25° (~28 km) atmospheric reanalysis — so individual valleys, sheltered bays and single summits are not resolved. In steep terrain read these as conditions for the wider area rather than for one village. They describe typical conditions, not a forecast. Read how the climatology is built.