Weather in Dar es Salaam in February

Shoulder season. February sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. Highs average 30.4 °C, lows 26.4 °C, and rain falls on 13 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

February ranks 6 of 12 in Dar es Salaam: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 13 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 30.4 °C days and 26.4 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 18 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day barely swings — 4 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest February day reached 34.1 °C and the coldest night fell to 24.3 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 42 mm — roughly 53% of the month's rain in one day.

February is moderately variable: 23 mm in the driest year against 222 mm in the wettest, around an average of 80 mm. Roughly two Februarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 13.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 77%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How February sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 30.1 °C in January, 30.4 here, 30.1 in March. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: March brings 10 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in February

Dar es Salaam sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.3 hours in February, against a range of just 0.8 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 28.9 °C in February — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. This is the warmest the water gets all year.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

February in Dar es Salaam versus nearby

If Dar es Salaam is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Zanzibar is a better bet in February — within a degree on temperature, 3 days less rain. Mombasa is the weaker option in February — 6.2 °C warmer, 10 days less rain.

So: February is a compromise. July is 31 points better and is what Dar es Salaam is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Dar es Salaam

See all twelve months in Dar es Salaam, or where else to go in February.