Weather in Zanzibar in October

A good month. October is a solid month to be in Zanzibar. Highs average 28.7 °C, lows 25.5 °C, and rain falls on 12 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

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

Rain on 12 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 28.7 °C days and 25.5 °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: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average October reaches 30 °C; the day barely swings — 3.2 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 30.3 °C and the coldest night fell to 24.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 66 mm — roughly 103% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. October rainfall has ranged from 5 mm to 271 mm across the twenty years measured — a 266 mm spread around an average of 64 mm. The average is real but almost no individual October looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind sits around 16.2 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity is unremarkable at 74%.

How October sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 27.8 °C in September, 28.7 here, 29.3 in November. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: November brings 6 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in October

Zanzibar sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.2 hours in October, 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 26.7 °C in October — warm enough to stay in as long as you like. The sea peaks at 29.5 °C in March and bottoms out at 25.6 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

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

October 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, 1 day less rain. Mombasa is the weaker option in October — 4 °C warmer, 1 day more rain.

So: October is a compromise. July is 24 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 October.