Climate and average weather in Sake

In Sake, the weather is warm, wet, and mostly cloudy and remarkably steady, with daytime highs holding near warm levels all year. The wettest stretch peaks around November.

Best: late May to late August

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Sake typically varies from 13°C to 22°C, and is rarely below 11°C or above 24°C. August is the hottest month of the year, while November is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best times of year to visit Sake for warm-weather activities are from late January to early February and late May to late August.

Hottest
Aug
22°
Coldest
Nov
14°
Wettest
Nov
392 mm
Driest
Jul
51 mm
Rain / yr
2615 mm
261 wet days
Daylight
11.9–12.1 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
1,468 m
1.6°S
Clearest
Jul
68% cloud

Sake is town in Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Air quality: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database. Density & description: Wikidata (CC0), GeoNames.

Sake weather by month, at a glance

The whole year in one picture — sky, rain, humidity, temperature and travel score. Click any band to jump to its full chart.

Each stripe is one measure across the whole year, stacked so a single day reads top to bottom. The sky band runs overcast grey on top down to clear blue at the base — more blue means sunnier — followed by the rainfall curve, the humidity band, a temperature strip that tints each stretch of the year by how warm its average high is, and the travel-score line at the foot. Scan straight down any date to read that day across every measure at once; the score climbs highest around late May to late August.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

Daily average highs and lows in Sake, from 1991–2020 of climate data. The shaded bands show the range most days fall in — 10th to 90th percentile.

Temperatures in Sake stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is August, with an average high of 22°C and low of 13°C; the coolest is November, with an average low of 14°C and high of 21°C.

Days typically run about 8°C warmer than nights year-round.

10°15°20°25°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan2214
Feb2214
Mar2214
Apr2214
May2214
Jun2213
Jul2213
Aug2213
Sep2214
Oct2114
Nov2114
Dec2114

Average hourly temperature in Sake

A compact picture of the whole year, hour by hour: each column is a day, each row an hour, and the color is the modeled average temperature. Darker overlays mark night, lighter ones the civil-twilight hours around sunrise and sunset.

Read left to right for the day of the year and top to bottom for the hour of the day; the color is the modeled temperature, cool blues through to hot reds on the same scale as the other charts. A vertical slice is a single day's swing — coolest just before dawn, warmest in the mid-afternoon — while a horizontal slice follows one hour across the seasons. The darker overlay marks night and the lighter one the twilight around sunrise and sunset. Colors run warmest on August afternoons, near 22°C, and coldest before dawn in November, near 14°C.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec12 AM2 AM4 AM6 AM8 AM10 AM12 PM2 PM4 PM6 PM8 PM10 PM12 AM

Sake weather by month

Every month at a glance. Click a month for its detailed page.

MonthHigh / Low (°C)Rainfall (mm)Wet daysDaylight (hours)Travel score
Jan22° / 14°18919.312.15.0
Feb22° / 14°1771812.14.9
Mar22° / 14°30726.5124.0
Apr22° / 14°28626.6123.8
May22° / 14°17122.211.94.6
Jun22° / 13°9314.511.95.6
Jul22° / 13°5111.411.96.2
Aug22° / 13°1031811.95.3
Sep22° / 14°22524.6124.2
Oct21° / 14°37929123.5
Nov21° / 14°3922812.13.5
Dec21° / 14°2432312.14.4

Chance of rain

How likely it is to rain on a typical day, and how that shifts across the wetter and drier seasons.

Sake gets about 2615 mm of precipitation a year. On a typical day the chance of rain is very wet, but that rises and falls sharply with the seasons.

The wetter season lasts 3.6 months, from around Sep 1 to Dec 18, peaking in October at about 97% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Jul 11.

November is the wettest month by volume, with 392 mm over about 28 wet days; July is the driest, with 51 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%110%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetOct 31 · 97%Jul 11 · 32%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan6119
Feb6518
Mar8527
Apr8927
May7122
Jun4815
Jul3811
Aug5918
Sep8125
Oct9329
Nov9328
Dec7523

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Sake collects about 2615 mm of rain across 261 wet days — roughly 218 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. November is the wettest month with 392 mm, while July is the driest at just 51 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 41% of the year’s total.

050100150200250300350400450JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec1891773072861719351103225379392243
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan18919
Feb17718
Mar30727
Apr28627
May17122
Jun9315
Jul5111
Aug10318
Sep22525
Oct37929
Nov39228
Dec24323

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

How often the daytime sky is clear, partly cloudy or overcast.

In Sake, the average share of the sky covered by clouds shows significant seasonal variation over the course of the year.

The clearer part of the year begins around May 14 and lasts for 3.9 months, ending around September 9. The clearest month is July, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 35% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around September 10 and lasts for 4.5 months, ending around January 25. The cloudiest month is November, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 98% of the time.

0%100%10%90%20%80%30%70%40%60%50%50%60%40%70%30%80%20%90%10%100%0%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJul 12 · 38%Oct 25 · 1%mostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan1288
Feb1387
Mar892
Apr595
May1783
Jun2872
Jul3565
Aug2773
Sep1387
Oct397
Nov298
Dec991

Daylight, sunrise and sunset

DaylightNight

Hours of daylight through the year, with sunrise and sunset times.

The gold band is daylight — sunrise runs along its lower edge, sunset along the upper — so it widens toward summer and pinches toward winter, with night the dark area above and below. Close to the equator, Sake barely changes through the year: days stay near 12 h 06 min of light in every season.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan12.16:116:16
Feb12.16:176:20
Mar12.06:136:14
Apr12.06:056:03
May11.96:025:58
Jun11.96:076:01
Jul11.96:126:07
Aug11.96:096:06
Sep12.05:585:58
Oct12.05:485:50
Nov12.15:475:51
Dec12.15:576:03

Sunny days

How many genuinely sunny days each month brings — days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — banded into plain-language zones.

Sake averages about 1 sunny days a month — counting the days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — with a clear seasonal swing between 0 and 4 days.

The sunnier stretch runs 3.6 months, from around May 16 to Sep 3. The sunniest month is July, with roughly 3 sunny days (gloomy).

The greyest month is October, down near 0 sunny days — about 93% fewer than the July peak.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgreyersunniergreyergloomymixedJul 164 daysOct 250 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan1Gloomy
Feb1Gloomy
Mar0Gloomy
Apr0Gloomy
May2Gloomy
Jun3Gloomy
Jul4Gloomy
Aug3Gloomy
Sep1Gloomy
Oct0Gloomy
Nov0Gloomy
Dec0Gloomy

Humidity comfort

DryComfortableHumidMuggyOppressiveMiserable

Share of days at each humidity comfort level, based on the dew point — the measure that tracks how muggy it actually feels.

Humidity comfort is graded by the dew point — the temperature at which the air would be fully saturated — because it tracks how muggy it actually feels far better than relative humidity does. A low dew point feels dry and crisp; a high one feels sticky and oppressive no matter the reading on a humidity gauge.

In Sake, how humid it feels changes noticeably over the year.

The more humid part of the year lasts 3.3 months, from around February 21 to June 1. The muggiest month is April, when the air feels humid, muggy or worse about 25% of the time.

The most comfortable stretch runs from around June 2 to October 4, and July is the most comfortable month — the air is dry or comfortable 100% of the time.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJul 28 · 100%Apr 28 · 73%humidcomfortabledryhumidcomfortablehumid
Dry (%)Comfortable (%)Humid (%)
Jan13825
Feb12799
Mar28018
Apr07525
May47719
Jun30655
Jul66340
Aug50481
Sep18766
Oct28810
Nov1899
Dec7885

Wind

Average wind speed through the year, banded into plain-language speed zones so a number reads as 'breezy' or 'calm' without knowing the scale.

This is the average sustained wind speed at the standard 10 metres above open ground — the steady flow a weather station reports, not the sharper gusts that come and go, which can run half again as fast. It's the number that says whether a place is generally breezy or calm.

Wind in Sake is steady company: average speeds sit near 4 km/hcalm — in every month of the year, with no meaningful windy or calm season.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmMay 23 · 5 km/hNov 2 · 3 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan5calm
Feb5calm
Mar4calm
Apr4calm
May5calm
Jun5calm
Jul5calm
Aug4calm
Sep4calm
Oct4calm
Nov4calm
Dec4calm

Best time to visit Sake

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

To characterize how pleasant the weather is in Sake throughout the year, we compute two travel scores — one for general sightseeing, one for beach and pool weather.

Around early June, Sake is still near the start of its best-weather window — great conditions with the peak-season crowds not yet at full swing.

Inferred from the travel-score curve; month-by-month visitor numbers are a planned addition.

The travel score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 18°C and 28°C. Based on this score, the best time of year to visit Sake for general outdoor tourist activities is from late May to late August, with a peak score in the second week of July.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJul 12 · 6.5

The travel score (filled area), and its constituents: the temperature score (red line), the cloud cover score (blue line), and the precipitation score (green line).

Travel score (0–10)Rating
Jan5.0fair
Feb4.9fair
Mar4.0fair
Apr3.8fair
May4.6fair
Jun5.7good
Jul6.2good
Aug5.3fair
Sep4.2fair
Oct3.5fair
Nov3.5fair
Dec4.3fair

The beach/pool score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 24°C and 34°C. Based on this score, the best times of year to visit Sake for hot-weather activities run from late January to mid February and again from late May to late August, with a peak score in the second week of July.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJul 14 · 4.4

The beach/pool score (filled area), and its constituents: the temperature score (red line), the cloud cover score (blue line), and the precipitation score (green line).

What to pack for Sake, by month

EssentialRecommendedOptional

Month by month, what's worth putting in the bag — from the temperature range, rain chance, sun and wind. Tap a month for a quick packing note.

Sake packs about the same all year — highs hold near 22°C. Across the year the things worth having are light clothes, rain gear and sun protection.

Light clothing
Warm layer
Winter coat
Rain gear
Sun protection
Windbreaker

In August, Sake sees daytime highs around 22°C and nights near 13°C. Pack rain gear. Worth having: light clothes and sun protection. About 18 days see rain.

UV index (midday) in Sake by month

LowModerateHighVery highExtreme

Clear-sky midday UV index through the year, shaded by the WHO exposure levels — how much sun protection each month calls for.

Under clear skies, the midday UV index in Sake peaks around March 21 at about 16 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near June 21 at about 10 (extreme).

The index reaches 3 or more — the level where the WHO recommends sun protection — every month of the year.

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeMar 21UV 16Jun 21UV 10
UV index (midday)Level
Jan11Extreme
Feb14Extreme
Mar16Extreme
Apr16Extreme
May12Extreme
Jun10Extreme
Jul10Extreme
Aug10Extreme
Sep14Extreme
Oct13Extreme
Nov12Extreme
Dec10Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Sake

LowModerateHighVery highExtreme

Modeled clear-sky UV for every hour of every day — when in the day sun protection actually matters.

The whole year hour by hour: each column is a day, each row an hour, and the color is the modeled clear-sky UV index — the midday peak scaled down as the sun sits lower in the sky. Darker overlays mark night, lighter ones the civil-twilight hours around sunrise and sunset.

UV falls off far faster than brightness as the sun drops, so even in March the burn window is concentrated in the middle of the day: about 8.5 hours a day reach index 3 (protection recommended), and 7 hours reach 6 or more. Mornings and late afternoons stay comparatively gentle year round.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec12 AM2 AM4 AM6 AM8 AM10 AM12 PM2 PM4 PM6 PM8 PM10 PM12 AM
UV ≥ 3 (h/day)UV ≥ 6 (h/day)
Jan85.5
Feb86.5
Mar8.57
Apr8.56.5
May86
Jun7.55
Jul7.55
Aug7.55
Sep86.5
Oct86
Nov86
Dec7.55.5

Air quality in Sake by month

GoodModeratePoorUnhealthyVery unhealthy

Average fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) through the year — so you can see which months the air is worst, not just the yearly average.

Air quality in Sake is worst in July — around 106 µg/m³ PM2.5 (unhealthy), and holds fairly steady the rest of the year.

Modeled monthly averages (CAMS reanalysis, 2015–2024).

0306090120JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecUnhealthyJul 16105 µg/m³Apr 1877 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan92Unhealthy
Feb96Unhealthy
Mar82Unhealthy
Apr77Unhealthy
May80Unhealthy
Jun100Unhealthy
Jul106Unhealthy
Aug100Unhealthy
Sep89Unhealthy
Oct82Unhealthy
Nov83Unhealthy
Dec88Unhealthy
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Sake is frost-free year round — even the coldest nights rarely reach freezing, so there is no start or end to the growing season.

0%25%50%75%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecfrost-free year round
Frost-free chance (%)Frost nights
Jan1000
Feb1000
Mar1000
Apr1000
May1000
Jun1000
Jul1000
Aug1000
Sep1000
Oct1000
Nov1000
Dec1000

Growing degree days

Degree days (base 10°C)Frost-free shaded

Growing degree days tally heat above 10°C: each day adds however many degrees its average temperature runs over that threshold, and cold days add nothing. Sake banks about 2,775 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around February.

01,0002,0003,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan237
Feb221
Mar243
Apr235
May240
Jun217
Jul224
Aug241
Sep233
Oct233
Nov221
Dec231

Solar energy

Average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground, banded into brightness zones so the number means something at a glance.

Solar energy is how much sunlight actually reaches the ground each day, measured in kilowatt-hours per square metre (kWh/m²) — the combined effect of how long the sun is up, how high it climbs, and how much cloud gets in the way. It's the raw fuel a solar panel has to work with: for scale, 1 kWh/m² a day is dim and wintry, while 7+ is desert-bright.

Sake receives about 5.1 kWh/m² a day of solar energy — bright — and it stays remarkably steady, holding between 4.8 and 5.4 kWh/m² all year. For solar panels, output here is a flat line, not a seasonal wave.

01234567JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmoderatebrightintenseFeb 285.4 kWhNov 84.8 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan5.2Bright
Feb5.4Bright
Mar5.3Bright
Apr5.1Bright
May5.1Bright
Jun5.1Bright
Jul5.2Bright
Aug5.3Bright
Sep5.2Bright
Oct4.9Bright
Nov4.8Bright
Dec5.0Bright

Where is Sake?

Sake sits at 1.6°S, 29.0°E, 1,468 m above sea level, in Democratic Republic of the Congo. The nearest listed city is Goma, 23 km away.

Topography around Sake

How much the land rises and falls, and what covers it, within 3, 16 and 80 km of Sake.

Within 3 km, the terrain around Sake has significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 492 m around an average of 1,597 m above sea level; within 16 km, very significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 1,408 m; within 80 km, extreme variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 3,697 m.

The land around Sake is covered by grassland (47%) within 3 km, grassland (46%) within 16 km, and trees (53%) and grassland (20%) within 80 km.

3 km
492 m
16 km
1,408 m
80 km
3,697 m
treesshrubsgrasslandcroplandartificial surfaceswaterwetland
Nearby: Goma 23 km · Gisenyi 28 km · Kora 45 km · Mukamira 51 km · Busogo 56 km · Mukingo 57 km · Kirumba 60 km · Rutshuru 62 km

Democratic Republic of the Congo travel facts

Travel advisory
Level 4
Do Not Travel
Power plugs
Type C / E
220 V · 50 Hz
Prices
≈ 42% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$807
2025
Happiness
3.8 / 10
World Happiness, 2025
Safe drinking water
12%
of population, 2024
Road deaths
34.9
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
Low
World Bank
English
Very low
EF EPI 400

Sources: World Bank, US State Department, World Happiness Report, WHO/UNICEF, EF EPI, CIA World Factbook.

Data sources

Temperature, precipitation, cloud, humidity, wind and solar figures are a 1991–2020 climatology for Sake (-1.5739°, 29.0434°, elevation 1,468 m), computed from hourly ERA5 reanalysis — contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information. Sun figures are astronomical calculations, not observations. City data © GeoNames, CC BY 4.0. Map outlines from Natural Earth (public domain); interactive map © Google. UV index is derived from CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) clear-sky UV data — contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information. Monthly air-quality (PM2.5) seasonality is from the CAMS EAC4 reanalysis (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service), scaled to the WHO annual mean where available. Topography is sampled from the Copernicus DEM GLO-90 elevation model (© ESA/Airbus) and ESA WorldCover 2021 land cover (CC BY 4.0).