Climate and average weather in Kotido

In Kotido, the weather is hot, wet, and mostly clear and remarkably steady, with daytime highs holding near hot levels all year. The wettest stretch peaks around July.

Best: mid May to early February

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Kotido typically varies from 18°C to 32°C, and is rarely below 17°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 time of year to visit Kotido for warm-weather activities is from mid May to early February.

Hottest
Feb
32°
Coldest
Jul
18°
Wettest
Jul
123 mm
Driest
Jan
8 mm
Rain / yr
678 mm
111 wet days
Daylight
11.8–12.2 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
1,227 m
3.0°N
Clearest
Sep
43% cloud

Kotido is place in Uganda.

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

Kotido 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 early February.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

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

Temperatures in Kotido 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 20°C; the coolest is July, with an average low of 18°C and high of 27°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)
Jan3119
Feb3220
Mar3220
Apr3120
May2919
Jun2918
Jul2718
Aug2818
Sep3019
Oct3019
Nov3019
Dec3019

How hot and cold Kotido 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, Kotido feels like about 33°C (around February 19). About 44 days a year carry some heat stress, peaking in February.

15°20°25°30°35°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Feels-like high (°C)Air high (°C)Feels-like low (°C)Air low (°C)
Jan31311919
Feb32322020
Mar32322020
Apr31312020
May30291919
Jun29291818
Jul28271818
Aug28281818
Sep30301919
Oct30301919
Nov30301919
Dec30301919

Average hourly temperature in Kotido

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

Kotido 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° / 19°81.911.85.2
Feb32° / 20°101.811.94.5
Mar32° / 20°386.7124.3
Apr31° / 20°761212.14.4
May29° / 19°8614.212.14.8
Jun29° / 18°10615.412.25.1
Jul27° / 18°12318.412.25.3
Aug28° / 18°10116.312.15.4
Sep30° / 19°446.8125.7
Oct30° / 19°468.711.95.2
Nov30° / 19°276.111.95.6
Dec30° / 19°133.211.85.7

Chance of rain

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

Kotido gets about 678 mm of precipitation a year. On a typical day the chance of rain is often wet, but that rises and falls sharply with the seasons.

The wetter season lasts 5.3 months, from around Apr 1 to Sep 7, peaking in July at about 65% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Jan 5.

July is the wettest month by volume, with 123 mm over about 18 wet days; January is the driest, with 8 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdrierwetterdriermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetJul 26 · 65%Jan 5 · 6%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan62
Feb82
Mar217
Apr4012
May4614
Jun5115
Jul5818
Aug5216
Sep257
Oct279
Nov216
Dec103

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Kotido collects about 678 mm of rain across 111 wet days — roughly 56 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. July is the wettest month with 123 mm, while January is the driest at just 8 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 49% of the year’s total.

0255075100125150JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec81038768610612310144462713
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan82
Feb102
Mar387
Apr7612
May8614
Jun10615
Jul12318
Aug10116
Sep447
Oct469
Nov276
Dec133

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

In Kotido, 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 August 7 and lasts for 2.1 months, ending around October 8. The clearest month is September, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 73% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around March 8 and lasts for 2.5 months, ending around May 21. The cloudiest month is April, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 60% 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecSep 15 · 77%Apr 27 · 35%clearmostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan6634
Feb6040
Mar5446
Apr4060
May5149
Jun5347
Jul5545
Aug6337
Sep7327
Oct5644
Nov5743
Dec6733

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, Kotido 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)
Jan11.86:576:48
Feb11.97:016:55
Mar12.06:546:53
Apr12.16:426:46
May12.16:366:44
Jun12.26:396:49
Jul12.26:446:54
Aug12.16:456:51
Sep12.06:376:38
Oct11.96:306:27
Nov11.96:336:25
Dec11.86:456:34

Sunny days

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

Kotido averages about 11 sunny days a month — counting the days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — with a clear seasonal swing between 5 and 17 days.

The sunnier stretch runs 2.0 months, from around Aug 15 to Oct 14. The sunniest month is September, with roughly 15 sunny days (bright).

The greyest month is April, down near 7 sunny days — about 56% fewer than the September peak.

05101520JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgreyersunniergreyergloomymixedbrightSep 1617 daysApr 305 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan14Mixed
Feb11Mixed
Mar11Mixed
Apr7Gloomy
May9Mixed
Jun8Mixed
Jul8Mixed
Aug11Mixed
Sep15Bright
Oct11Mixed
Nov11Mixed
Dec14Mixed

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

The more humid part of the year lasts 5.4 months, from around March 29 to September 8. The muggiest month is May, when the air feels humid, muggy or worse about 71% of the time.

The most comfortable stretch runs from around September 9 to March 28, and February is the most comfortable month — the air is dry or comfortable 94% of the time.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecFeb 14 · 95%May 7 · 21%muggyhumidcomfortabledrycomfortablehumidcomfortable
Dry (%)Comfortable (%)Humid (%)Muggy (%)
Jan781660
Feb771761
Mar5025242
Apr15294511
May9195318
Jun1323586
Jul923671
Aug1625572
Sep4227301
Oct3239281
Nov2647271
Dec6026140

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 Kotido is typically calm, near 10 km/h, and varies moderately with the seasons.

The windier part of the year lasts 6.6 months, from around Sep 28 to Apr 17. The windiest month is November, averaging about 13 km/h (light breeze).

The calmer part of the year runs from around Apr 18 to Sep 27, with June the calmest month at about 6 km/h.

05101520JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwindiercalmerwindiercalmlight breezeNov 29 · 14 km/hJun 20 · 6 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan12light breeze
Feb12light breeze
Mar12light breeze
Apr10calm
May7calm
Jun6calm
Jul6calm
Aug7calm
Sep9calm
Oct11calm
Nov13light breeze
Dec13light breeze

Hazard calendar for Kotido

In seasonPeak

When the seasonal hazards worth planning around — the rainy season, tropical-cyclone risk and dust haze — are active through the year.

Kotido's rainy season runs April–August, when most of the year's rain falls.

Rainy season
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

Best time to visit Kotido

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around late January, Kotido 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 time of year to visit Kotido for general outdoor tourist activities is from mid May to mid February, with a peak score in the second week of September.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationSep 14 · 5.8

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
Jan5.2fair
Feb4.5fair
Mar4.4fair
Apr4.4fair
May4.8fair
Jun5.1fair
Jul5.3fair
Aug5.4fair
Sep5.6good
Oct5.2fair
Nov5.6good
Dec5.7good

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 Kotido for hot-weather activities run from mid May to early June and again from late August to mid April, with a peak score in the last week of December.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationDec 26 · 8.0

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 Kotido, 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.

Kotido 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, Kotido sees daytime highs around 32°C and nights near 20°C. Pack light clothes and sun protection.

UV index (midday) in Kotido 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 Kotido peaks around March 15 at about 16 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near June 19 at about 11 (extreme).

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

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeMar 15UV 16Jun 19UV 11
UV index (midday)Level
Jan14Extreme
Feb15Extreme
Mar16Extreme
Apr14Extreme
May12Extreme
Jun11Extreme
Jul11Extreme
Aug13Extreme
Sep13Extreme
Oct14Extreme
Nov12Extreme
Dec11Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Kotido

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
Apr8.56.5
May86
Jun85.5
Jul85.5
Aug86
Sep86
Oct86.5
Nov86
Dec7.55.5

Air quality in Kotido 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 Kotido is worst in December — around 17 µg/m³ PM2.5 (moderate), about 2.2× the cleanest month (April, 8 µg/m³).

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

01020JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecModerateGoodModerateGoodModerateDec 2117 µg/m³Apr 188 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan16Moderate
Feb14Moderate
Mar10Good
Apr8Good
May9Good
Jun15Moderate
Jul17Moderate
Aug12Good
Sep10Good
Oct9Good
Nov13Moderate
Dec17Moderate
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Kotido 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. Kotido banks about 5,268 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)
Jan471
Feb449
Mar496
Apr454
May441
Jun403
Jul391
Aug399
Sep424
Oct455
Nov432
Dec452

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.

Kotido receives about 6.1 kWh/m² a day of solar energy — intense — and it stays remarkably steady, holding between 5.3 and 6.7 kWh/m² all year. For solar panels, output here is a flat line, not a seasonal wave.

012345678JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmoderatebrightintenseSep 226.7 kWhJul 215.3 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan6.3Intense
Feb6.6Intense
Mar6.5Intense
Apr6.1Intense
May5.8Bright
Jun5.5Bright
Jul5.3Bright
Aug5.9Bright
Sep6.6Intense
Oct6.3Intense
Nov6.0Bright
Dec6.0Intense

Where is Kotido?

Kotido sits at 3.0°N, 34.1°E, 1,227 m above sea level, in Uganda. The nearest listed city is Abim, 59 km away.

AbimMorotoKakumaKitgumSorotiLiraDokolo

Topography around Kotido

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Kotido has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 39 m around an average of 1,229 m above sea level; within 16 km, significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 536 m; within 80 km, very significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 1,641 m.

The land around Kotido is covered by grassland (52%) and cropland (45%) within 3 km, grassland (70%) and cropland (26%) within 16 km, and grassland (65%) and shrubs (29%) within 80 km.

3 km
39 m
16 km
536 m
80 km
1,641 m
treesshrubsgrasslandcroplandartificial surfaces
Nearby: Abim 59 km · Moroto 77 km · Kakuma 114 km · Kitgum 142 km · Soroti 152 km · Lira 159 km · Dokolo 160 km · Lodwar 163 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 Kotido (2.9806°, 34.1331°, elevation 1,227 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).