Climate Change Chart of Maputo, Mozambique

Overview of climate changes

Temperature changes

Across calendar months, the unweighted mean of monthly mean temperatures shows a difference of +0.36 °C compared with the earlier reference period; this summarizes monthly averages, not daytime maximum temperatures or a continuous trend. [The average was not day-weighted.] The largest monthly increase was in March, with a difference of +1.03 °C. By contrast, October had the largest monthly decrease, a difference of -0.27 °C. These monthly extremes show that the average change was not uniform across the calendar months.

Changes in rainfall

Averaged across calendar months, mean daily rainfall had a difference of -0.04 mm/day compared with the earlier reference period. This is an unweighted summary of monthly means, not a day-weighted annual average, and the rainfall figures describe daily means rather than monthly totals. The largest monthly increase in mean daily rainfall was in December, with a difference of +0.80 mm/day. The largest decrease was in February, at a difference of -1.12 mm/day. Those contrasting monthly changes help explain why the across-month mean difference is small, without implying that rainfall changed in the same way in every month.

Changes in sunshine duration

The unweighted mean of daily sunshine hours across calendar months had a difference of -0.13 hours/day compared with the earlier reference period. This summarizes monthly means rather than a day-weighted annual total, and does not establish a continuous change between the reference periods. The largest monthly decrease in mean daily sunshine was in February, with a difference of -0.45 hours/day. In contrast, March recorded the largest monthly increase, at a difference of +0.22 hours/day; the monthly extremes therefore varied in direction, even though the across-month average was lower.