UV Index 🇿🇦South Africa

South Africa lies between roughly 22°S and 35°S in the Southern-Hemisphere subtropics, with most of the country averaging 8–10 hours of sunshine a day. The interior is dominated by a high plateau: the Highveld sits at 1,500–2,100 m, and the Drakensberg escarpment rises above it, with Thabana Ntlenyana reaching 3,482 m. Higher elevation thins the atmosphere above the populated interior and lifts surface UV compared with cities of equivalent latitude at sea level.

The Karoo semi-desert covers a large part of the central interior, with annual rainfall as low as 50–250 mm. Persistent clear skies and dry air leave UV almost unattenuated through much of the year, while reflective rock and pale soil add to effective ground-level exposure. Cape Town, Johannesburg and the eastern coast each see distinct UV regimes, but the country as a whole is consistently sunny and well above mid-latitude global averages for ambient UV.

The country sits at #112 of 191 in the WHO's global ambient-UV ranking with about 4,111 J/m² of average daily UV, around the 42nd percentile worldwide.