Weather in Mombasa in April

A hard month. April is a hard month in Mombasa, and worth planning around. You should expect rain on 24 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

April ranks 10 of 12 — near the bottom of Mombasa's year. July is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 37 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 24 of the month's 30 days, 3 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Pack for 32.4 °C days and 25 °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: 26 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest April day reached 38.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 21.5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 33 mm — roughly 26% of the month's rain in one day.

April is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest April on record still delivered 238 mm against 52 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 129 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 10 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 79%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How April sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 2.8 °C cooler than March, with May dropping another 1.9 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip. Rain has already shifted: 10 days more than March had.

Daylight in April

Mombasa sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12 hours in April, against a range of just 0.5 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 29.4 °C in April — 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.

April in Mombasa versus nearby

If Mombasa is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Zanzibar is a better bet in April — 3.2 °C cooler, 2 days more rain. Dar es Salaam is a better bet in April — 3 °C cooler, 2 days more rain.

So: April is a compromise. July is 34 points better and is what Mombasa 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 Mombasa

See all twelve months in Mombasa, or where else to go in April.