Barometric pressure in Cape Town
A quiet stretch: pressure has barely moved over the past day. A fall is beginning, and runs until Friday afternoon.
Sea level reading, as of 17:00 local time.
The past week and the days ahead
The shaded part shows the days already gone. The thicker line is the forecast.
The week ahead
Each day at a glance: how far pressure moves, and the low and high it reaches.
Falls steadily through the day.
19° / 11°low 1027 · high 1030 hPa
Falls steadily through the day.
18° / 12°low 1022 · high 1026 hPa
Eases down slowly through the day.
19° / 13°low 1019 · high 1022 hPa
Eases down slowly through the day.
25° / 11°low 1015 · high 1019 hPa
Barely moves all day.
25° / 13°low 1016 · high 1018 hPa
Falls quickly through the day.
27° / 13°low 1011 · high 1018 hPa
Rises quickly through the day.
15° / 11°7.8 mmlow 1011 · high 1020 hPa
Hour by hour
| Hour | Weather and temperature | Rain (mm) | Pressure (hPa) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 |  12° | 1030 | |
| 01:00 | 12° | 1029 | |
| 02:00 |  12° | 1029 | |
| 03:00 | 12° | 1029 | |
| 04:00 | 11° | 1029 | |
| 05:00 | 11° | 1028 | |
| 06:00 | 11° | 1029 | |
| 07:00 | 11° | 1029 | |
| 08:00 | 12° | 1029 | |
| 09:00 | 13° | 1029 | |
| 10:00 | 15° | 1029 | |
| 11:00 | 17° | 1029 | |
| 12:00 | 18° | 1029 | |
| 13:00 | 19° | 1028 | |
| 14:00 | 19° | 1027 | |
| 15:00 | 19° | 1027 | |
| 16:00 | 18° | 1027 | |
| 17:00 | 17° | 1027 | |
| 18:00 | 16° | 1027 | |
| 19:00 | 14° | 1027 | |
| 20:00 | 13° | 1027 | |
| 21:00 | 13° | 1027 | |
| 22:00 | 13° | 1027 | |
| 23:00 | 13° | 1027 |
Of the seven days, Saturday moves most: up 8 hPa.
The lowest reading, about 1011 hPa, comes on Friday afternoon; it climbs from there.
Cape Town sits 25 m above sea level, so a barometer in the city reads about 3 hPa lower than the sea-level figure. A home station set to the local reading should show about 1024 hPa as of 17:00.
The hours already past are the model's record of each hour as it passed, anchored to real observations, though not a reading from an instrument in Cape Town.
Cities nearby
Open one to see its pressure, or search for your own city at the top of the page.
Out in the sun today? Check the UV level in Cape Town, on our sister site 
uvi.today.
Common questions
What is a normal barometric pressure?
Near 1013 hPa at sea level; the exact standard figure, 1013.25 hPa, is the same as 760 mmHg, 29.92 inHg or 101.3 kPa. Anything between roughly 1000 and 1025 hPa is ordinary. Which way it is going matters far more than the number itself.
Why does my own barometer show a different number?
Usually altitude, and sometimes the instrument itself. Weather services correct readings to what they would be at sea level, so that cities can be compared. The figure for Cape Town, which stands 25 m above sea level, is in the note above: about 3 hPa below the sea-level reading. If your barometer is already set to sea level and still reads slightly differently, that is the setting on the instrument rather than the weather.
Is a millibar the same as a hectopascal?
Yes. One millibar and one hectopascal are exactly the same amount of pressure, so 1013 mbar and 1013 hPa mean the same thing. The name changed; the number did not.
Does falling pressure mean rain?
Not by itself. Away from the tropics, falling pressure usually means a low is approaching, and lows carry the fronts that bring cloud and rain, so the two often arrive together. But a shallow fall can pass with nothing more than cloud, and rain falls under steady pressure too. The graph tells you a system is on the way, not how wet it will be. The week ahead, just above, shows the rain forecast beside the pressure.
