Climate and Weather of Kenya
Climate and Weather of Kenya: Kenya is located in Eastern Africa. At 580,367 square kilometers (224,081 sq. mi), Kenya is the world’s 48th largest country by area. With a population of more than 47.6 million in the 2009 census, Kenya is the 29th most populous country in the world.
Kenya’s capital and largest city is Nairobi, while its oldest, currently second largest, and first capital is the coastal city of Mombasa. Kisumu city is the third-largest city and also an inland port on Lake Victoria. Other important urban centers include Nakuru and Eldoret. Kenya is bordered by south Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south, and the Indian Ocean to the southeast.
Deciding when to go to Kenya is a perennial question for the tourists. There is no simple best time to visit Kenya as good conditions vary across the country, and one person’s ideal weather will be another disappointment. Having said that, most visitors will find something positive about the weather through most of the year. Whatever the ambient temperature in the shade, when the sun is out which is a good deal of the time, and often from dawn until dusk for weeks on end, it is always fierce: you are on the equator, and you will know all about it if you neglect the sunscreen.
There are two dominant influences on the climate in Kenya: the onshore monsoon winds from the Indian Ocean, and altitude. The winds determine the onset of Kenya’s two rainy seasons, with the hot northeast monsoon or the Kaskazi blowing dry air in from the Persian Gulf from November to March/April and the warm, moist Kusi monsoon blowing in from the southeast from April/May to October. It’s the slightly cooler Kusi that normally delivers that heaviest rain, a season known as the ‘’Long rains’’ in late April, May and early June. The relatively cool season, from late June to October, gets much less rain. There’s a second rainy season, the ‘’short rains’’, for a few weeks in November and December, followed roughly from Mid-December to March by a dry season of hot, usually rainless, weather.
Although prolonged rainfall is not that uncommon, the typical pattern is for rain to fall as a torrential downpour, lasting perhaps half and an hour to an hour, with the sun then coming out and drying the wet ground minutes. Camps and lodges always provide umbrellas, though your foot wear will get muddy and you are still likely to get wet if you happen to be outside. There is little point in bringing waterproofs.
The theory of Kenya’s climate is one thing: predicting the actual weather for specific dates is increasing difficult as climate change impacts more and more, bringing floods and droughts, unseasonably cool and unseasonably hot weather. These impacts can be more than inconvenient: a dramatic flash flood swept the seasonally dry course of the Ewaso Nyiro in March 2010, destroying the bridge linking Samburu and Buffalo Springs national reserves and badly damaging several camps and lodges. Although the bridge was repaired, the same thing happened again in 2011 and the bridge was only reopened in 2015.
Two other points to bear in mind about the weather in Kenya: firstly, swimming pools are rarely heated, and only those on the coast are guaranteed to be warm, and secondly, although people sometimes talk about Kenya ‘’winter’’ and Kenyans themselves tend to make a big fuss about the temperatures that most visitors would consider quite warm they are simply referring to a slightly cooler time of year, not the sort of precipitate drop in the mercury that we experience at higher altitudes.
Weather thought the year in Kenya.
January: Clear, hot and warm nights make this high season a popular time for Kenya safaris and good for diving and snorkeling. lt’s the long dry season well established, the grass grazed down and wildlife gathering close to water points, this is still a good time for a safari and good water clarity makes for excellent diving conditions.
March: Hot, increasingly humid weather with good diving and snorkeling conditions at the start of the month gives way to rains and lower rates.
April: Temperatures drop soon after the rains are established and you will often have facilities largely to yourself in this more affordable low or ‘’green’’ season.
May: While game viewing can be trickier as vegetation runs riot, the colours and light are great for photography at this time of year.
June: The rains give way to cloudy, cooler weather making for very comfortable conditions, especially in the highlands.
July :Kenya’s ‘’cool’’ season sets in, with the highlands sometimes rather grey, but wildebeest, migrating from Serengeti, start arriving in the Maasai Mara national reserve.
August: The Great Migrating fills the Mara plains and school’s out, so the park roads are full of tourists.
September: The clearing skies signal the start of hot, dry weather with little chance of rain and fewer visitors making the latter part of this month a good time for a quieter safari.
October: Still hot, mostly dry and not too busy, this is many people’s preferred month for a safari, and it’s also good for diving and snorkeling.
November: The ‘’short rains’’ usually start in the second half, so this is low season, with accordingly lower rates and visitor numbers.
December: The rains usually finish by mid-month and landscapes often look their best, under clear blue skies, heralding the start of the peak tourist season.
