Weather in Nairobi in August

Prime time. August is about as good as Nairobi gets. Highs average 26.8 °C, lows 12.6 °C, and rain falls on 6 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

August ranks 2 of 12 in Nairobi. Only July scores clearly higher, and the difference is small enough to be settled by price rather than weather.

Rain falls on only 6 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average August reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest August day reached 30.5 °C and the coldest night fell to 8.7 °C.

August is moderately variable: 8 mm in the driest year against 49 mm in the wettest, around an average of 22 mm. Roughly two Augusts in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 9.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 63%.

How August sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 26 °C in July, 26.8 here, 28.4 in September. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in August

Nairobi sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.1 hours in August, against a range of just 0.2 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 16.9 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights. At 1684 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets. Within August itself the daily swing is 14.2 °C, so mornings and afternoons need different clothes.

How busy it gets

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

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

August in Nairobi versus nearby

If Nairobi is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Nakuru is the weaker option in August — 2.9 °C cooler, 16 days more rain. Kakamega is the weaker option in August — 2.7 °C cooler, 22 days more rain.

So: August is effectively as good as it gets here — 4 points behind July, which is inside the margin where the weather stops being the deciding factor and price starts being it.

Every month in Nairobi

See all twelve months in Nairobi, or where else to go in August.