The climate of Ethiopia: when to go to Ethiopia

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This African country is a vast and very varied country, and consequently the climate of Ethiopia also varies considerably from place to place. There are areas of extreme dryness such as the Danakil belt and the Ogaden plateaus on the border with Somalia, which alternate with areas of abundant rainfall such as the mountains of the Ethiopian plateau and the Great Rift Valley area.

Much of Ethiopia, which is located at high altitudes, above 1,500 / 2,000 meters, has a healthy and mild climate, while areas below 1,200 meters have a humid and warm tropical climate.

The climate of the Ethiopian highlands is of a tropical mountain type with mild temperatures and three well delimited seasons: a dry season, between October and February, a relatively rainy and hot season between March and May, and a major rainy season between June and September.

On the highlands, the rains vary between 700 mm per year in the Tigray, 900 mm in the Sidama, 1,100 mm per year in the area of the capital Addis Ababa, 1,500 mm per year in the Amhara and Jimma. The rainiest areas of Ethiopia are the southwestern mountainous areas of Caffa where it can exceed 2,000 mm of rain per year. On the highest mountains the climate becomes alpine.

In Danakil and Ogaden the climate is instead semi-desert torrid and dry with almost zero rainfall and very high temperatures during the day and cold at night with strong differences in both daily and seasonal temperatures.

WHEN TO GO TO ETHIOPIA

The best time for a trip to Ethiopia are the months of the dry season between October and February. The months of intense rains between June and September are to be avoided.

THE CLIMATE OF ETHIOPIA: CLIMATE TABLES

CLIMATE TABLE FOR ADDIS ABEBA

ADDIS ABEBA (2355 meters)
Month	Average low temperature (° C)	Average high temperature (°C)	Precip. (mm)	Precipitation days
January	7,4	23,5	13	3
February	8,7	24,5	30	5
March	10,5	25,4	58	7
April	11,1	24,8	82	10
May	10,8	25,2	84	10
June	10,6	23,4	138	20
July	11,1	20,7	280	27
August	11,0	20,7	290	26
September	10,7	21,7	149	18
October	8,7	22,7	27	4
November	6,7	23,0	7	1
December	7,0	22,9	7	1
YEAR	9,5	23,2	1165	132

CLIMATE TABLE FOR AWASSA

AWASSA (1708 meters)
Month	Average low temperature (° C)	Average high temperature (°C)	Precip. (mm)	Precipitation days
January	11	29	29	5
February	12	30	44	8
March	13	30	100	16
April	14	28	147	16
May	14	27	133	16
June	14	26	99	15
July	14	24	128	19
August	14	25	125	20
September	13	25	140	22
October	12	27	92	14
November	10	28	30	5
December	10	28	24	4
YEAR	12,6	27,3	1091	160

CLIMATE TABLE FOR JIMMA

JIMMA (1780 meters)
Month	Average low temperature (° C)	Average high temperature (°C)	Precip. (mm)	Precipitation days
January	18	28	40	5
February	19	29	55	10
March	20	28	95	14
April	20	27	140	15
May	20	26	160	18
June	19	24	215	24
July	19	24	215	25
August	19	25	211	25
September	19	27	185	22
October	19	27	90	18
November	18	28	55	10
December	17	28	35	5
YEAR	18,9	26,8	1500	191

CLIMATE TABLE FOR DIRE DAWA

DIRE DAWA (1276 meters)
Month	Average low temperature (° C)	Average high temperature (°C)	Precip. (mm)	Precipitation days
January	15,5	29,4	16,6
February	16,6	31,5	55,2
March	19,1	34,1	61,6
April	20,4	32,7	74,8
May	22,3	34,8	45,5
June	22,8	35,9	15,6
July	21,2	34,3	83,9
August	20,2	32,9	87,7
September	20,7	33,6	39,8
October	18,7	33,6	24,8
November	15,9	31,6	59,9
December	15,0	29,6	17,8
YEAR	19,0	32,8	583,2

CLIMATE TABLE FOR BAHIR DAR

BAHIR DAR (1800 meters)
Month	Average low temperature (° C)	Average high temperature (°C)	Precip. (mm)	Precipitation days
January	8	29	2	1
February	9	31	2	1
March	11	32	12	2
April	13	32	28	3
May	13	32	80	10
June	13	29	205	18
July	13	26	396	28
August	13	25	375	28
September	12	26	211	20
October	12	27	87	10
November	10	28	12	3
December	8	28	6	1
YEAR	11,3	28,8	1416	125

CLIMATE TABLE FOR MACALLÈ

MEK’ELE (MACALLÈ) (2084 meters)
Month	Average low temperature (° C)	Average high temperature (°C)	Precip. (mm)	Precipitation days
January	16	23	36
February	17	24	10
March	18	25	30
April	19	26	46
May	20	27	36
June	20	27	30
July	18	23	201
August	17	23	216
September	18	25	36
October	17	24	10
November	16	23	30
December	15	22	41
YEAR	18	24	706