Today
Has it rained enough in Johannesburg?
Rain soaked in today, and the ground has taken it.
Johannesburg has had 64.1mm of rain in the last 30 days. That is well above the 20.8mm a normal September brings here, and closer to the wettest on record (96.1mm).
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
15 SeptToday
Reached the roots
Rain that did not
8 days of 14
Thirty years
Rain in Johannesburg through a normal year
Across a normal year Johannesburg gets about 725.3mm of rain, most of it in December (133.3mm) and least in July (2.9mm).
A normal September in Johannesburg has rain on 5 days. Only 2 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Johannesburg one of the wetter places this site covers in South Africa in September — 4th of 8, against Durban at the wet end (64.7mm) and Polokwane at the dry end (11.6mm).
JFMAMJJulASONDec
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means
What that means for what you grow
- Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
- Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
- Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
- Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.