Weather in Zanzibar in March

Shoulder season. March sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. You should expect rain on 21 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

March ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Zanzibar's year. July is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 42 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 21 of the month's 31 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 29.9 °C days and 27.6 °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: 14 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day barely swings — 2.3 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 32.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 25.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 31 mm — roughly 26% of the month's rain in one day.

March is moderately variable: 38 mm in the driest year against 212 mm in the wettest, around an average of 119 mm. Roughly two Marchs in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 12.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 76%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How March sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 29.8 °C in February, 29.9 here, 29.2 in April. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: April brings 5 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in March

Zanzibar sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.1 hours in March, against a range of just 0.7 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 29.5 °C in March — 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.

March in Zanzibar versus nearby

If Zanzibar is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Dar es Salaam is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain. Mombasa is the weaker option in March — 5.3 °C warmer, 7 days less rain.

So: March is a compromise. July is 42 points better and is what Zanzibar 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 Zanzibar

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