Climate and average weather in Butaleja

In Butaleja, the weather is hot, wet, and partly cloudy and remarkably steady, with daytime highs holding near hot levels all year. The wettest stretch peaks around April.

Best: late May to late September

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Butaleja typically varies from 18°C to 32°C, and is rarely below 16°C or above 35°C. February is the hottest month of the year, while July is the coldest.

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

Hottest
Feb
32°
Coldest
Jul
18°
Wettest
Apr
208 mm
Driest
Feb
37 mm
Rain / yr
1293 mm
178 wet days
Daylight
11.9–12.1 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
1,067 m
0.9°N
Clearest
Jan
60% cloud

Butaleja is place in Eastern Uganda, Uganda.

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

Butaleja 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 September.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

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

Temperatures in Butaleja stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is February, with an average high of 32°C and low of 19°C; the coolest is July, with an average low of 18°C and high of 28°C.

Days typically run about 11°C warmer than nights, with the widest day–night swing (around 13°C) in February.

15°20°25°30°35°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan3118
Feb3219
Mar3119
Apr2919
May2819
Jun2818
Jul2818
Aug2818
Sep2918
Oct2919
Nov2818
Dec2918

Average hourly temperature in Butaleja

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 February afternoons, near 32°C, and coldest before dawn in July, near 18°C.

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

Butaleja 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
Jan31° / 18°485.2125.1
Feb32° / 19°375.3124.5
Mar31° / 19°11412124.3
Apr29° / 19°20821.1124.0
May28° / 19°19323.4124.3
Jun28° / 18°11117.512.15.1
Jul28° / 18°6414.8125.5
Aug28° / 18°8217.8124.8
Sep29° / 18°8316.8124.6
Oct29° / 19°12019.4124.2
Nov28° / 18°14816.3124.7
Dec29° / 18°848.511.95.4

Chance of rain

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

Butaleja gets about 1293 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 3.4 months, from around Mar 26 to Jul 6, peaking in May at about 82% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Jan 27.

April is the wettest month by volume, with 208 mm over about 21 wet days; February is the driest, with 37 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdrierwetterdriermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetMay 4 · 82%Jan 27 · 17%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan175
Feb195
Mar3912
Apr7021
May7523
Jun5818
Jul4915
Aug5718
Sep5617
Oct6319
Nov5316
Dec289

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Butaleja collects about 1293 mm of rain across 178 wet days — roughly 108 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. April is the wettest month with 208 mm, while February is the driest at just 37 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 42% of the year’s total.

050100150200250JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec483711420819311164828312014884
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan485
Feb375
Mar11412
Apr20821
May19323
Jun11118
Jul6415
Aug8218
Sep8317
Oct12019
Nov14816
Dec849

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

In Butaleja, 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 December 7 and lasts for 3.3 months, ending around March 17. The clearest month is January, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 49% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around March 18 and lasts for 2.2 months, ending around May 23. The cloudiest month is April, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 85% 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJan 31 · 52%Apr 24 · 12%mostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan4951
Feb4852
Mar3565
Apr1585
May2575
Jun3565
Jul3763
Aug4060
Sep4258
Oct2179
Nov1981
Dec4159

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, Butaleja 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)
Jan12.06:556:52
Feb12.07:006:58
Mar12.06:546:54
Apr12.06:446:45
May12.06:396:42
Jun12.16:436:46
Jul12.06:486:51
Aug12.06:476:49
Sep12.06:386:39
Oct12.06:306:29
Nov12.06:316:28
Dec11.96:426:39

Sunny days

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

Butaleja averages about 4 sunny days a month — counting the days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — with a clear seasonal swing between 1 and 10 days.

The sunnier stretch runs 3.6 months, from around Dec 4 to Mar 24. The sunniest month is January, with roughly 8 sunny days (gloomy).

The greyest month is April, down near 2 sunny days — about 79% fewer than the January peak.

051015JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecsunniergreyersunniergloomymixedJan 3110 daysApr 271 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan8Gloomy
Feb7Mixed
Mar5Gloomy
Apr2Gloomy
May2Gloomy
Jun2Gloomy
Jul2Gloomy
Aug3Gloomy
Sep4Gloomy
Oct2Gloomy
Nov2Gloomy
Dec6Gloomy

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

The more humid part of the year lasts 8.3 months, from around March 23 to November 30. The muggiest month is April, when the air feels humid, muggy or worse about 98% of the time.

The most comfortable stretch runs from around December 1 to March 22, and February is the most comfortable month — the air is dry or comfortable 44% of the time.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecFeb 4 · 50%Apr 28 · 0%muggyhumidcomfortabledrycomfortablehumidcomfortable
Dry (%)Comfortable (%)Humid (%)Muggy (%)
Jan13284910
Feb1528479
Mar5155724
Apr023168
May001882
Jun015148
Jul038117
Aug027919
Sep037423
Oct026532
Nov056232
Dec6195817

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 Butaleja is steady company: average speeds sit near 5 km/hcalm — in every month of the year, with no meaningful windy or calm season.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmFeb 20 · 5 km/hOct 23 · 4 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan5calm
Feb5calm
Mar5calm
Apr5calm
May4calm
Jun4calm
Jul5calm
Aug5calm
Sep5calm
Oct4calm
Nov4calm
Dec5calm

Best time to visit Butaleja

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around mid September, Butaleja 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 Butaleja for general outdoor tourist activities run from late May to late September and again from mid November to mid February, with a peak score in the second week of July.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timebest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJul 14 · 5.6

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
Jan5.1fair
Feb4.5fair
Mar4.3fair
Apr4.0fair
May4.3fair
Jun5.1fair
Jul5.5fair
Aug4.8fair
Sep4.6fair
Oct4.2fair
Nov4.7fair
Dec5.3fair

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 Butaleja for hot-weather activities is from late November to late March, with a peak score in the first week of January.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJan 2 · 7.4

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 Butaleja, 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.

Butaleja packs about the same all year — highs hold near 32°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 February, Butaleja sees daytime highs around 32°C and nights near 19°C. Pack light clothes and sun protection. About 5 days see rain.

UV index (midday) in Butaleja 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 Butaleja peaks around March 16 at about 15 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near June 18 at about 10 (extreme).

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

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeMar 16UV 15Jun 18UV 10
UV index (midday)Level
Jan14Extreme
Feb14Extreme
Mar15Extreme
Apr14Extreme
May12Extreme
Jun10Very high
Jul11Extreme
Aug12Extreme
Sep12Extreme
Oct14Extreme
Nov12Extreme
Dec11Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Butaleja

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)
Jan86.5
Feb8.56.5
Mar86.5
Apr86.5
May7.55.5
Jun7.55.5
Jul7.55.5
Aug86
Sep86
Oct86.5
Nov86
Dec7.55.5

Air quality in Butaleja 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 Butaleja is worst in January — around 60 µg/m³ PM2.5 (unhealthy), and holds fairly steady the rest of the year.

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

020406080JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecUnhealthyPoorJan 1759 µg/m³Apr 1939 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan60Unhealthy
Feb54Poor
Mar45Poor
Apr38Poor
May41Poor
Jun48Poor
Jul52Poor
Aug47Poor
Sep43Poor
Oct45Poor
Nov50Poor
Dec54Poor
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Butaleja 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. Butaleja banks about 4,997 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around February.

02,0004,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan444
Feb424
Mar458
Apr413
May410
Jun389
Jul397
Aug410
Sep406
Oct421
Nov401
Dec423

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.

Butaleja receives about 5.1 kWh/m² a day of solar energy on average — bright — with a clear seasonal swing between 4.5 and 6.0 kWh/m².

The brighter stretch of the year lasts 3.8 months, from around Dec 11 to Apr 5. The brightest month is February, averaging about 6.0 kWh/m² (intense).

The dimmest month is May, down near 4.6 kWh/m² — roughly 23% less than the February peak.

01234567JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbrighterdimmerdimmoderatebrightintenseFeb 126.0 kWhMay 34.5 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan5.7Bright
Feb6.1Intense
Mar5.7Bright
Apr4.8Bright
May4.6Bright
Jun4.6Bright
Jul4.5Bright
Aug4.9Bright
Sep5.4Bright
Oct5.1Bright
Nov4.9Bright
Dec5.2Bright

Where is Butaleja?

Butaleja sits at 0.9°N, 34.0°E, 1,067 m above sea level, in Uganda. The nearest listed city is Busolwe, 7.0 km away.

ManafwaPallisa

Topography around Butaleja

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Butaleja has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 53 m around an average of 1,071 m above sea level; within 16 km, only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 113 m; within 80 km, extreme variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 3,263 m.

The land around Butaleja is covered by grassland (28%), shrubs (27%) and cropland (25%) within 3 km, cropland (37%), grassland (21%) and shrubs (20%) within 16 km, and shrubs (28%), cropland (27%) and trees (21%) within 80 km.

3 km
53 m
16 km
113 m
80 km
3,263 m
treesshrubsgrasslandcroplandartificial surfaceswaterwetland
Nearby: Busolwe 7.0 km · Budaka 11 km · Namutumba 31 km · Mbale 31 km · Nakaloke 34 km · Tororo 35 km · Manafwa 36 km · Pallisa 37 km

Uganda travel facts

Travel advisory
Level 4
Do Not Travel
Power plugs
Type G
240 V · 50 Hz
Prices
≈ 35% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$1,206
2025
Happiness
4.5 / 10
World Happiness, 2025
Safe drinking water
18%
of population, 2024
Homicide rate
9
per 100k, 2023
Road deaths
29.4
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
Low
World Bank
English
Moderate
EF EPI 518
Religion
Protestant 45%Roman Catholic 39%Muslim 14%other 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 Butaleja (0.9119°, 33.9511°, elevation 1,067 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).