Month by month
Matusadona in January
January is the heart of the rains at Matusadona: hot, humid and green, with storms building over the lake most afternoons.
If you only want the answer
Come in January for storms, green bush, birds and the lowest lodge rates, not for concentrated game. Expect heavy rain on the model normals, heat and difficult interior roads.
Weather and water
The climate model puts January as the wettest month of the year here, with rain on most days. It overstates the park's own totals, which average 650 to 700 mm across the whole year, but the shape is right: this is peak wet season. Days are hot and heavy before the storms.
On the thirty-year model normals January averages 26.7°C by day and 20.2°C at night, with 332 mm of rain over 25 wet days.
Game and roads
With water everywhere, animals leave the lakeshore for the valley floor and the escarpment, and the thick bush makes them harder to find. Boat cruises still deliver hippo, crocodile and water birds. Zimbabwe Field Guide says game-viewing roads close in the rains; the park has not confirmed that, so ask the trust which roads are open before planning a self-drive.
Rates
It is green season at the lodges. Changa charges $440 per person per night international from 1 November to 31 March, against $682 in high season. The park's Jenje bush camp runs in the dry season only.
The lake
Check the Zambezi River Authority's current Lake Kariba reading before you go: on 22 September 2026 the lake stood at 481.13 m, 40.89% of usable storage, far higher than a year earlier, and the level shapes the lakeshore grassland where most of the game is. We have no sourced month-by-month lake cycle, so we do not predict one.