Climate and average weather in Mandera

In Mandera, the weather is sweltering, showery, and mostly clear and remarkably steady, with daytime highs holding near sweltering levels all year. The wettest stretch peaks around April.

Best: mid May to mid September

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Mandera typically varies from 24°C to 36°C, and is rarely below 21°C or above 38°C. March is the hottest month of the year, while November is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best times of year to visit Mandera for warm-weather activities are from mid May to mid September and mid October to late December.

Hottest
Mar
36°
Coldest
Nov
24°
Wettest
Apr
91 mm
Driest
Jun
1 mm
Rain / yr
299 mm
46 wet days
Daylight
11.8–12.2 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
217 m
3.9°N
Clearest
Jan
29% cloud

Mandera is human settlement in Kenya.

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

Mandera 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 mid May to mid September.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

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

Temperatures in Mandera stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is March, with an average high of 36°C and low of 26°C; the coolest is November, with an average low of 24°C and high of 32°C.

Days typically run about 9°C warmer than nights year-round.

20°25°30°35°40°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan3524
Feb3625
Mar3626
Apr3425
May3325
Jun3325
Jul3224
Aug3324
Sep3424
Oct3325
Nov3224
Dec3424

How hot and cold Mandera really feels

Feels-like highFeels-like lowactual air temp

The felt-temperature range through the year — heat index on the day's high (summer humidity), wind chill on the night's low (winter wind). The dashed lines are the plain thermometer; the gap is how much hotter or colder it really feels.

On the hottest afternoons, once humidity is folded in, Mandera feels like about 37°C (around March 30). Nearly every day a year carries some heat stress, peaking in March.

20°25°30°35°40°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdangerous heat
Feels-like high (°C)Air high (°C)Feels-like low (°C)Air low (°C)
Jan35352424
Feb36362525
Mar37362626
Apr37342525
May36332525
Jun34332525
Jul32322424
Aug33332424
Sep34342424
Oct35332425
Nov34322424
Dec34342424

Average hourly temperature in Mandera

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 March afternoons, near 36°C, and coldest before dawn in November, near 24°C.

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

Mandera 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
Jan35° / 24°20.411.83.2
Feb36° / 25°10.311.92.5
Mar36° / 26°152.4122.3
Apr34° / 25°9113.212.12.9
May33° / 25°346.712.23.6
Jun33° / 25°10.212.24.0
Jul32° / 24°10.312.24.5
Aug33° / 24°10.212.14.1
Sep34° / 24°20.6123.5
Oct33° / 25°729.411.93.6
Nov32° / 24°6810.211.84.2
Dec34° / 24°112.111.83.9

Chance of rain

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

Mandera gets about 299 mm of precipitation a year. On a typical day the chance of rain is mostly dry, but that rises and falls sharply with the seasons.

The wetter season lasts 1.9 months, from around Mar 25 to May 22, peaking in April at about 52% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Aug 25.

April is the wettest month by volume, with 91 mm over about 13 wet days; June is the driest, with 1 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdrierwetterdriermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetApr 23 · 52%Aug 25 · 0%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan10
Feb10
Mar82
Apr4113
May237
Jun20
Jul10
Aug10
Sep31
Oct309
Nov3410
Dec72

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Mandera collects about 299 mm of rain across 46 wet days — roughly 25 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. April is the wettest month with 91 mm, while June is the driest at just 1 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 77% of the year’s total.

0255075100125JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec211591341112726811
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan20
Feb10
Mar152
Apr9113
May347
Jun10
Jul10
Aug10
Sep21
Oct729
Nov6810
Dec112

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

In Mandera, 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 September 9 and lasts for 7.1 months, ending around April 13. The clearest month is December, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 82% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around May 29 and lasts for 3.4 months, ending around September 8. The cloudiest month is July, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 73% 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecDec 22 · 83%Jul 16 · 24%clearmostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastclearercloudierclearer
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan8119
Feb7921
Mar7921
Apr6337
May6931
Jun4060
Jul2773
Aug4159
Sep6931
Oct6931
Nov7525
Dec8218

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, Mandera barely changes through the year: days stay near 12 h 12 min of light in every season.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan11.86:286:16
Feb11.96:316:23
Mar12.06:236:21
Apr12.16:106:15
May12.26:036:14
Jun12.26:066:20
Jul12.26:126:24
Aug12.16:136:21
Sep12.06:066:08
Oct11.96:005:55
Nov11.86:035:52
Dec11.86:166:02

Sunny days

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

Mandera averages about 14 sunny days a month — counting the days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — with a clear seasonal swing between 3 and 22 days.

The sunnier stretch runs 5.0 months, from around Nov 9 to Apr 10. The sunniest month is December, with roughly 21 sunny days (bright).

The greyest month is July, down near 3 sunny days — about 83% fewer than the December peak.

0510152025JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecsunniergreyersunniergloomymixedbrightbrilliantDec 2922 daysJul 153 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan21Bright
Feb19Bright
Mar19Bright
Apr12Mixed
May14Mixed
Jun7Gloomy
Jul3Gloomy
Aug7Gloomy
Sep15Mixed
Oct13Mixed
Nov16Bright
Dec21Bright

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 Mandera, how humid it feels changes dramatically over the year.

The more humid part of the year lasts 3.5 months, from around March 16 to June 30. The muggiest month is April, when the air feels humid, muggy or worse about 96% of the time.

The most comfortable stretch runs from around December 13 to March 15, and February is the most comfortable month — the air is dry or comfortable 79% of the time.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecFeb 4 · 86%Apr 26 · 0%oppressivehumidmuggycomfortabledrycomfortablehumid
Dry (%)Comfortable (%)Humid (%)Muggy (%)Oppressive (%)
Jan54271351
Feb46331631
Mar152536168
Apr04162653
May02204136
Jun02164141
Jul2554220
Aug3662910
Sep3553560
Oct011322928
Nov24153446
Dec2920202111

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.

Across the year, average wind speed in Mandera is typically light breeze, near 14 km/h, and varies a lot with the seasons.

The windier part of the year lasts 4.7 months, from around May 16 to Oct 4. The windiest month is July, averaging about 22 km/h (breezy).

The calmer part of the year runs from around Oct 5 to May 15, with November the calmest month at about 8 km/h.

0510152025JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmerwindiercalmercalmlight breezebreezyJul 17 · 22 km/hNov 8 · 8 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan12light breeze
Feb12light breeze
Mar11calm
Apr9calm
May14light breeze
Jun20breezy
Jul22breezy
Aug21breezy
Sep18light breeze
Oct11calm
Nov8calm
Dec10calm

Best time to visit Mandera

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around early September, Mandera is still near the tail of its best-weather window — great conditions with the peak-season crowds already thinning.

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 times of year to visit Mandera for general outdoor tourist activities run from mid May to early September and again from mid October to late December, with a peak score in the second week of July.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJul 11 · 4.5

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
Jan3.2poor
Feb2.5poor
Mar2.3poor
Apr2.9poor
May3.6fair
Jun4.0fair
Jul4.5fair
Aug4.1fair
Sep3.5fair
Oct3.6fair
Nov4.2fair
Dec3.9fair

The beach/pool score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 24°C and 34°C. Based on this score, the best time of year to visit Mandera for hot-weather activities is from early May to mid February, with a peak score in the third week of December.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationDec 16 · 7.6

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 Mandera, 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.

Mandera packs about the same all year — highs hold near 36°C. Across the year the things worth having are light clothes, sun protection and rain gear.

Light clothing
Warm layer
Winter coat
Rain gear
Sun protection
Windbreaker

In March, Mandera sees daytime highs around 36°C and nights near 26°C. Pack light clothes and sun protection.

UV index (midday) in Mandera 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 Mandera peaks around March 19 at about 14 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near June 23 at about 11 (extreme).

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

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeMar 19UV 14Jun 23UV 11
UV index (midday)Level
Jan13Extreme
Feb14Extreme
Mar15Extreme
Apr14Extreme
May13Extreme
Jun11Extreme
Jul11Extreme
Aug13Extreme
Sep13Extreme
Oct13Extreme
Nov11Extreme
Dec11Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Mandera

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 hours a day reach index 3 (protection recommended), and 6.5 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)
Jan86
Feb86.5
Mar86.5
Apr8.56.5
May86
Jun85.5
Jul85.5
Aug86.5
Sep86
Oct86
Nov7.55.5
Dec7.55.5

Air quality in Mandera 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 Mandera is worst in July — around 16 µg/m³ PM2.5 (moderate), about 2.0× the cleanest month (April, 8 µg/m³).

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

01020JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecGoodModerateGoodJul 1716 µg/m³Apr 228 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan11Good
Feb12Good
Mar10Good
Apr8Good
May8Good
Jun14Moderate
Jul16Moderate
Aug15Moderate
Sep13Moderate
Oct9Good
Nov10Good
Dec9Good
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Mandera 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. Mandera banks about 7,009 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around March.

02,0004,0006,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan613
Feb578
Mar655
Apr589
May593
Jun568
Jul563
Aug576
Sep582
Oct580
Nov531
Dec580

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.

Mandera receives about 5.9 kWh/m² a day of solar energy on average — bright — with a clear seasonal swing between 4.8 and 7.2 kWh/m².

The brighter stretch of the year lasts 4.1 months, from around Dec 10 to Apr 14. The brightest month is February, averaging about 7.1 kWh/m² (intense).

The dimmest month is July, down near 4.8 kWh/m² — roughly 32% less than the February peak.

012345678JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbrighterdimmerdimmoderatebrightintenseFeb 257.2 kWhJul 144.8 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan6.7Intense
Feb7.2Intense
Mar7.0Intense
Apr5.9Bright
May5.8Bright
Jun5.1Bright
Jul4.8Bright
Aug5.5Bright
Sep6.4Intense
Oct5.6Bright
Nov5.4Bright
Dec6.1Intense

Where is Mandera?

Mandera sits at 3.9°N, 41.9°E, 217 m above sea level, in Kenya. The nearest listed city is Beled Hawo, 3.0 km away.

RamuDhamasLafeyEl WakBaardheereTakaba

Topography around Mandera

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Mandera has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 64 m around an average of 213 m above sea level; within 16 km, only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 113 m; within 80 km, large variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 828 m.

The land around Mandera is covered by shrubs (35%), grassland (25%) and artificial surfaces (23%) within 3 km, shrubs (53%) and grassland (41%) within 16 km, and shrubs (65%) and grassland (29%) within 80 km.

3 km
64 m
16 km
113 m
80 km
828 m
treesshrubsgrasslandcroplandartificial surfacesbare terrain
Nearby: Beled Hawo 3.0 km · Ramu 70 km · Luuq 78 km · Dhamas 105 km · Lafey 115 km · El Wak 162 km · Baardheere 183 km · Takaba 193 km

Kenya travel facts

Travel advisory
Level 2
Exercise Increased Caution
Power plugs
Type G
240 V · 50 Hz
Prices
≈ 34% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$2,363
2025
Happiness
4.7 / 10
World Happiness, 2025
Homicide rate
4.9
per 100k, 2022
Road deaths
28.3
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
Lower middle
World Bank
English
High
EF EPI 593
Religion
Christian 86%Muslim 11%other 2%none 2%

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 Mandera (3.9373°, 41.8569°, elevation 217 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).