Weather in Nairobi in March

A good month. March works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. Highs average 29 °C, lows 15.2 °C, and rain falls on 13 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

March ranks 9 of 12 in Nairobi: 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, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 29 °C days and 15.2 °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: 12 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 34 °C and the coldest night fell to 10.9 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 33 mm — roughly 52% of the month's rain in one day.

March is moderately variable: 9 mm in the driest year against 201 mm in the wettest, around an average of 64 mm. Roughly two Marchs in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 11.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 63%.

How March sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 29.2 °C in February, 29 here, 27.2 in April. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: April brings 8 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in March

Nairobi sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.1 hours in March, 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.

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.

March in Nairobi versus nearby

If Nairobi is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Nakuru is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain. Kakamega is the weaker option in March — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain.

So: March is a compromise. July is 25 points better and is what Nairobi 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 Nairobi

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