January to February
Green season
Green season. Hot, humid, lush, and the game disperses. Birding is at its best. A few camps stay open.
- January 32.9° day, 23.6° night 74 mm over 12 wet days
- February 32.3° day, 23.4° night 99 mm over 13 wet days
Month by month
Best time to visit Nyerere
June to October is the dry season and the reliable window. March to May most camps close. The boat safaris work year-round, which is why this park is worth considering in the shoulder months.
If you only want the answer
June to September. July averages 5 mm against 144 mm in April. That gap decides what you see: spread out across the park in the wet, gathered at whatever water is left in the dry.
- January: Green season, 74 millimetres
- February: Green season, 99 millimetres
- March: Green season, 135 millimetres
- April: Green season, 144 millimetres
- May: Shoulder, 38 millimetres
- June: Prime, 15 millimetres
- July: Prime, 5 millimetres
- August: Prime, 5 millimetres
- September: Prime, 7 millimetres
- October: Shoulder, 18 millimetres
- November: Shoulder, 33 millimetres
- December: Shoulder, 71 millimetres
Prime
Dry but hot
Shoulder
Green season
Bar height is average rainfall, the figure above it is the daytime high.
The year, season by season
The periods below are how this park actually divides its year, with thirty-year climate averages against each month. Averages hide bad years: a dry January still happens, and so does a wet July.
March to May
Green season Shoulder
The long rains. Most camps close and roads become difficult. TANAPA discounts the conservation fee between 15 March and 15 May, one of the few parks that does.
- March 31.0° day, 23.3° night 135 mm over 18 wet days
- April 29.4° day, 22.3° night 144 mm over 18 wet days
- May 29.8° day, 21.2° night 38 mm over 7 wet days
June
Prime
The dry season opens, camps reopen, and wild dog denning begins. Green enough to be beautiful, dry enough to drive.
- June 29.3° day, 19.7° night 15 mm over 3 wet days
July to August
Prime
Peak. Game concentrates on the river and lakes, dogs are at their dens, and the skimmers are nesting on the exposed sandbars.
- July 30.2° day, 19.5° night 5 mm over 1 wet day
- August 30.9° day, 20.3° night 5 mm over 1 wet day
September to October
Prime Shoulder
The driest and most concentrated. Hot, dusty, and the best month for predator activity.
- September 31.8° day, 21.1° night 7 mm over 1 wet day
- October 33.1° day, 22.2° night 18 mm over 2 wet days
November to December
Shoulder
Short rains arrive, the bush greens up and prices fall. Still good early in November.
- November 33.1° day, 23.2° night 33 mm over 5 wet days
- December 32.7° day, 23.7° night 71 mm over 13 wet days
Climate figures are Open-Meteo climate normals, 1991 to 2020, measured at -8.2, 37.8. Prime, shoulder and green are worked out against this park's own year, not a fixed threshold: the four months with the least rain, the four with the most, and the rest in between. Full charts on the weather page.
What the season does to the boat safaris
Unlike most Tanzanian parks, the water here is permanent, so the boat safaris on the Rufiji and the lakes run all year. In the dry months the animals come to the water and you meet them from the boat; in the green season the birding from the water is extraordinary.
That makes Nyerere unusually forgiving as a shoulder-season destination, as long as your camp is one of the ones that stays open.