Namibia has over 300 days of sunshine per year as a result of being situated at the southern edge of the tropics – the Tropic of Capricorn cuts directly through the middle of the country. Winter is from June to August and is mostly dry while the rainy season is in summer (the small rains occur between September and November, and the big one between February and April). There is low humidity and the average rainfall ranges from nearly zero in the coastal desert to over 600mm in the Caprivi Strip, although rainfall is variable with regular droughts.
The coastal area is dominated by the cold, north-flowing Benguela current of the Atlantic Ocean, accounting for the low precipitation of less than 50mm per year, frequent thick fog, as well as lower temperatures than in the rest of the country overall. Sometimes winter brings a condition called Bergwind or Oosweer (Afrikaans: East weather) which is a hot dry wind which blows from inland coastward. These winds can form sand storms due to the locality of the coastal desert. Sand is deposited into the Atlantic Ocean and these deposits can be seen by satellite.
The Central Plateau and Kalahari areas have high temperature ranges of up to 30°C.
