Addis Ababa Layover Weather, Month by Month

The temperature in Addis Ababa barely moves. The rain moves enormously. That single fact is the whole of what the weather does to your layover here, and it decides one thing above all: whether the viewpoint on the ridge gives you a view or a wall of cloud.

What the weather actually does to a visit here

The mean temperature across the year runs from 15.5°C in December to 18.8°C in April. That is a swing of 3.3 degrees over twelve months, which is less than most cities manage in a week. Whatever month you land in, you pack the same bag.

What changes is water and light. July has 27 wet days; November has one. December gets 288 hours of sunshine; July gets 112. Mount Entoto appears on almost every itinerary out of Bole, and it is the stop those numbers govern — at 3,200 metres you are frequently inside the cloud rather than above it.

The museums, the cathedrals and the market do not care. If you land in the wet season you still get a good day out of it; you simply get a different one, weighted indoors, and it is worth choosing your route on that.

Addis Ababa month by month

Figures are the 1991–2020 normals, with rainfall from the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute.

January

Daytime high 23.9°C, overnight low 8.6°C. 13.0 mm of rain across 3 wet days, and 267 hours of sunshine. The driest stretch of the year is running and the ridge is at its clearest. Mornings are cold enough to want a jacket before nine.

February

Daytime high 25.3°C, overnight low 9.9°C. 33.7 mm of rain across 5 wet days, and 206 hours of sunshine. Rain begins to appear, in short afternoon bursts rather than all day. Book the viewpoint for the morning and it rarely matters.

March

Daytime high 25.8°C, overnight low 11.6°C. 66.3 mm of rain across 7 wet days, and 242 hours of sunshine. The warmest month by daytime high, at 25.8°C. Seven wet days out of thirty-one still leaves four dry ones in five.

April

Daytime high 25.4°C, overnight low 12.2°C. 91.2 mm of rain across 10 wet days, and 210 hours of sunshine. The short rains proper: a wet day in three, usually late in the day. Morning departures hold up well; afternoons are a coin toss.

May

Daytime high 25.3°C, overnight low 12.2°C. 76.0 mm of rain across 10 wet days, and 239 hours of sunshine. Ten wet days, but 239 hours of sun with them — more than April. The plain below the ridge is green and the light is good.

June

Daytime high 23.6°C, overnight low 11.7°C. 118.9 mm of rain across 20 wet days, and 174 hours of sunshine. Kiremt starts. Twenty wet days out of thirty changes the odds completely, and the sunshine drops by a fifth.

July

Daytime high 21.2°C, overnight low 11.9°C. 238.3 mm of rain across 27 wet days, and 112 hours of sunshine. The wettest month: 238 mm across 27 days, and 112 hours of sun. Assume the ridge is inside a cloud and plan the museums instead.

August

Daytime high 20.9°C, overnight low 11.8°C. 241.8 mm of rain across 26 wet days, and 133 hours of sunshine. The coolest daytime highs of the year, at 20.9°C, and the most rain. Humidity peaks at 80 per cent. This is an indoor month.

September

Daytime high 21.9°C, overnight low 11.3°C. 132.2 mm of rain across 18 wet days, and 162 hours of sunshine. The rains break during the month, and Ethiopian New Year falls on the 11th. The second half is markedly better than the first.

October

Daytime high 23.3°C, overnight low 9.7°C. 32.2 mm of rain across 4 wet days, and 248 hours of sunshine. The turn. Four wet days, 248 hours of sun, and the countryside still green from kiremt. Arguably the best month to land here.

November

Daytime high 23.3°C, overnight low 8.3°C. 5.3 mm of rain across 1 wet day, and 267 hours of sunshine. The driest month of the year: one wet day, 5.3 mm, 267 hours of sun. Whatever the itinerary promises at the viewpoint, you will get it.

December

Daytime high 23.1°C, overnight low 7.5°C. 7.5 mm of rain across 1 wet day, and 288 hours of sunshine. The sunniest month, at 288 hours, and the coldest nights, at 7.5°C. Clear skies and a jacket for the early pickup.

Kiremt, and the two rainy seasons

Ethiopia has two. The short rains, belg, run roughly February to May and arrive as afternoon showers that clear. The long rains, kiremt, run June to mid-September and are a different thing altogether: 599 mm falls in July and August alone, across 53 wet days.

Between them they account for most of the year's rain, and the gap between them is short. The dry season, mid-November to January, is the one that reliably delivers a clear ridge.

The best hours of the day

Morning, in every month. Cloud builds through the day here, and rain in both wet seasons is weighted to the afternoon. Reach the viewpoint before midday and you get the view far more often than you would at four in the afternoon.

That is worth knowing because most of these tours are timed from your landing rather than from a fixed hour. If your flight lands early and the month is wet, ask the operator to run the ridge first and the museums afterwards.

What the numbers mean for the ridge

Read the wet-days column rather than the millimetres. Two hundred millimetres in three storms will barely touch your day; the same total spread over twenty-six days will decide it. July and August are the months where that distinction stops being academic.

Weather questions

• Is there a bad month to have a layover here? No — only months that suit different routes. July and August favour the museums.
• Will rain cancel a tour? No. These are vehicle-based days with indoor stops, and every product refunds in full 24 hours ahead in any case.
• Do I need warm clothes? Bring one layer for the early pickup and for the ridge, which runs several degrees colder than the centre you left.
• When is the countryside greenest? September and October, straight after kiremt, which is also when the light is at its best.