Weather and climate

Katavi National Park weather

What it is doing right now, what the next two weeks look like, and what each month of the year means for the game viewing.

Right now in the park

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The next two weeks

Straight from the forecast, updated when you open this page. Useful if you are packing. Not useful for choosing a month, which is what the year below is for.

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The year at a glance

Bars are rainfall, the line is the daytime high. Thirty-year averages. The green band marks the months this park is at its driest, which is when most people want to be here.

Rainfall in millimetres along the bottom. Highest month 185 mm, daytime highs from 17.1 to 34.4 degrees.

Every month, and what it means for the wildlife

The temperature tells you what to pack. The rainfall column decides what you will see.

Month	Day	Night	Rain	Wet days	What that means here
January	28.0°C	19.4°C	151 mm	23	Green season. Rain, high grass and dispersed game; poor for mammals, good for birds.
February	28.3°C	19.5°C	122 mm	19	Still wet. The last month of operation; most camps close at the end of it.
March	28.2°C	19.5°C	151 mm	23	Peak rains. Every camp in the park is closed, and the roads are at their worst. April 2024 saw ten international visitors in the entire month.
April	28.6°C	19.5°C	81 mm	13	Peak rains. Every camp in the park is closed, and the roads are at their worst. April 2024 saw ten international visitors in the entire month.
May	29.0°C	18.7°C	6 mm	1	Peak rains. Every camp in the park is closed, and the roads are at their worst. April 2024 saw ten international visitors in the entire month.
June prime	29.2°C	17.3°C	0 mm	0	Camps reopen on 1 June. Floodplains drying, landscape still green, shoulder rates and very few visitors. The value month.
July prime	29.6°C	17.1°C	0 mm	0	Dry season proper. Concentrations building week by week along the Katuma.
August prime	31.0°C	18.4°C	0 mm	0	Peak concentration and the busiest month, which in Katavi terms still means a few hundred visitors in the whole park.
September	33.4°C	20.6°C	0 mm	0	Peak dry. The pools are at their minimum and the hippo drama at its maximum.
October	34.4°C	21.7°C	16 mm	3	The driest month and the classic Katavi spectacle: crocodiles in their caves, hippos packed tight, big herds on the last water.
November	30.4°C	20.5°C	110 mm	16	Short rains may begin. Plains green up, migrant birds arrive, some camps drop to low-season rates. Good, but variable.
December	27.2°C	19.5°C	185 mm	26	Green and birdy, with festive-period supplements at some camps. Fair for game.

Climate figures are Open-Meteo climate normals, 1991 to 2020, taken at -6.75, 31.2. The wildlife column is ours, from the sources on the best time to visit page. Averages hide bad years: a dry January still happens, and so does a wet July.