Current Weather in Zimbabwe

Someone asked me what the weather is like here.  Zimbabwe has a rainy season, which runs from roughly November through March, and then is dry the rest of the year.  It doesn’t have a rain pattern like the tropics (where you can tell time by the afternoon rains).   Instead, there are mornings that start out clear and cloud up, possibly producing rain, and others that start out quite cloudy and then clear off.  Sometimes the rain is accompanied by thunder and lightning, and sometimes not.  One morning this past week driving from Mutare to AU, we encountered fog going through Christmas pass.

 On Thursday I had my second closest encounter with lightning ever.   I was hurrying across campus carrying my clean laundry, trying to get to my building before it began to rain, when there was a sudden bolt of lightning and crack of thunder that shook the ground beneath me hard—enough for me to momentarily lose balance.  I was quite near a building and ran for it, assuming (though I’m not sure accurately) that it would have been built with a grounding device.  There was kind of a sizzling feeling and sound when the lightning hit, and my hair stood on end.  The good news I wasn’t hurt at all, and was on my way after taking a few deep breaths!

The temperatures are variable.  We have occasional hot and humid days; I’d guess the highs then to be in the low 90’s Fahrenheit.  More days are probably in the low to mid 80’s and somewhat humid. After sunset it seems to cool off pretty quickly in the evenings most of the time.  Only the first night I was here did it seem uncomfortably warm when I went to bed.   (That night I was so jet lagged I slept anyway!)  It’s often in the mid-70’s in my apartment when I go to bed, and a few degrees cooler outside.  Last night we had a good rain, and rains tend to produce cooler weather for at least ½ a day, so it was a little chilly outside when I woke up this morning.  Most mornings are cool but not chilly.

I guess overall, the weather here seems a lot like living in the Midwest in the summer, at least so far.