Swahili trading towns and a reef-sheltered Indian Ocean shore, on the same two-rains pattern as the interior. The kenyan coast barely has a temperature season: daytime highs move only about 5 °C across the whole year, from 27 °C in July to 31 °C in February. What changes instead is rain.
Measured against a beach trip, the conditions hold up January to February and July to September. January is the most consistent single month: highs near 31 °C, nights around 25 °C, and roughly 20 mm of rain across the month.
The binding constraint here is rainfall — that is what rules months out, not any composite judgement. Rainfall is sharply seasonal: May averages 167 mm against 9 mm in February, so the wet season is the real planning constraint rather than heat or cold. April is the weakest month on these criteria.
March, December sit just outside the window — part of the month works and part does not. These are usually the interesting weeks: conditions are close to the peak-season answer while prices and crowds are not. The map lets you check them fortnight by fortnight rather than trusting a monthly average.
What the Kenyan coast is known for
- Lamu Old Town is the oldest continuously inhabited Swahili settlement and a UNESCO site, effectively car-free
- Diani is consistently rated among Africa's best beaches, protected by an offshore reef
- Watamu and Malindi marine parks are among the oldest in Africa, established in 1968
- Gede's ruins are an abandoned Swahili town swallowed by coastal forest
- The coast pairs naturally with a Tsavo or Masai Mara safari inland
Month by month
| Month | High °C | Low °C | Precip mm | Wet days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 25 | 20 | 4.6 |
| February | 31 | 25 | 9 | 3.3 |
| March | 31 | 25 | 69 | 14.3 |
| April | 30 | 25 | 146 | 25.9 |
| May | 28 | 24 | 167 | 24.8 |
| June | 27 | 23 | 109 | 22.1 |
| July | 27 | 23 | 59 | 21.1 |
| August | 27 | 23 | 49 | 19.3 |
| September | 28 | 23 | 62 | 17.6 |
| October | 28 | 24 | 79 | 18.6 |
| November | 29 | 24 | 85 | 21.1 |
| December | 30 | 25 | 71 | 15.5 |
Ticked rows are months where every hard requirement for a beach trip is met across at least half the month.
Open Kenyan Coast on the map →
Nearby regions
Figures are 30-year climatology sampled at Mombasa, Diani Beach, Watamu, Lamu and Malindi, averaged across those locations, from ERA5-Land reanalysis fitted with a harmonic seasonal cycle and a trend term, evaluated for 2026. Sampling named towns rather than averaging the whole region avoids blending valley and mountain conditions into a figure true of neither. Cells are about 0.08° wide, from ERA5-Land's 0.1° grid, which is itself driven by a 0.25° (~28 km) atmospheric reanalysis — so individual valleys, sheltered bays and single summits are not resolved. In steep terrain read these as conditions for the wider area rather than for one village. They describe typical conditions, not a forecast. Read how the climatology is built.