Facts File

• Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa.
• Cape Town is regarded as the economic centre of the Western Cape and even the regional manufacturing hub.
• Cape Town is the primary harbor and airport in the Western Cape.
• Cape Town is the capital of the Western Cape and also the seat of National Parliament.
• Cape Town houses well known landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point.
• Cape Town is one of the most popular tourist destinations of South Africa.
• Cape Town was the largest city in the state, until the expansion of Johannesburg.
• Cape Town was the site of first settlement of Dutch and English settlers, in the 19th century.
• Surfing is a popular sport in Cape Town and it organizes a Red Bull Big Wave Africa surfing competition every year.
• Cape Town has a rich architectural heritage, housing a high density of Cape Dutch style buildings.
• Cape Town conducts an annual Cape Town Minstrel Carnival, a large minstrel festival, known by the name ‘Kaapse Klopse’.
• Whale watching is quite popular in Cape Town. Bryde's Whales can be seen here throughout the year.

Climate

The Cape Peninsula has a Mediterranean climate, as does most of California, South Western Australia and much of the Mediterranean. This climate type means the city has well-defined seasons. In winter, which lasts from May to September, large cold fronts come across from the Atlantic Ocean with heavy precipitation and strong north-westerly winds. The winter months are cool, with an average minimum temperature of 7 °C (45 °F) and an average maximum of around 17 °C (63 °F).[citation needed] Most of the city's annual rainfall occurs in wintertime, but due to the mountainous topography of the city, rainfall amounts for specific areas can vary dramatically. Newlands, to the south of the city, is the wettest suburb in South Africa.[8] The valleys and coastal plains average 515 millimetres (20 in) of rain per annum, while mountain areas can average as much as 1,500 millimetres (60 in) per annum.

Summer, which lasts from November to March, is warm and dry. The Peninsula gets frequent strong winds from the south-east, known locally as the Cape Doctor, because it blows away pollution and cleans the air. The south-easterly wind is caused by a high-pressure system which sits in the South Atlantic to the west of Cape Town, known as the South-Atlantic High. Summer temperatures are mild, with an average maximum of 26 °C (79 °F). Cape Town can be uncomfortably hot when the Berg Wind, meaning "mountain wind" blows from the Karoo interior for a couple of weeks in February or early March.

Cape Town's weather compares very closely to San Francisco, except for temperature. Cape Town receives fractionally more sunlight hours than San Francisco (3070 vs 3030 hours), fractionally less rainfall (515mm vs 518mm) and fractionally less wind (an average 3 on the Beaufort scale with just under 50% wind probability, vs an average low Beaufort 4 at just over 50% wind probability). However, Cape Town is significantly warmer, with an annual average ambient air temperature of 19 °C (66 °F) versus San Francisco's 13 °C (55 °F). Comparing this to other Mediterranean climates, this is warm but not hot. This temperature is significantly more than Barcelona (16 °C (61 °F), slightly more than Rome (18 °C (64 °F), slightly less than Palermo or Athens (20 °C (68 °F) and the same as Naples. Cape Town receives far more light than any major city in the Mediterranean however, with Madrid (the sunniest large city in Europe) receiving only 2830 hours per year.

Water temperatures range greatly, between 10 °C (50 °F) on the Atlantic Seaboard, to 22°C (72°F) in False bay. Average annual Ocean temperatures are between (13 °C (55 °F) on the Atlantic Seaboard (similar to Californian waters, such as San Francisco or Big Sur), and (17 °C (63 °F) in False Bay (similar to Northern Mediterranean temperatures, such as Nice or Monte Carlo).