Abuja month by month — at a glance
Hover each month for the summary. Click to pin it.
01 A year split in two
Key moments at a glance
1.3 mm in the whole month, 278 hours of sun and nights of 17.7 °C.
Humidity of 44.4 %, the year's minimum, with 35.2 °C highs.
308.3 mm over 17.3 days, at 88 % humidity and 154 hours of sun.
37.3 °C mean high, the year's highest, with humidity climbing.
Rain accompanies that jump and amplifies it. The annual total is 1,421.1 millimetres over 94 days, but distributed brutally: from May to October, 1,308 fall, that is ninety-two per cent of the year. In December and January, by contrast, 1.3 and 0.8 millimetres fall.
Rain days say it even more clearly. December records 0.0 days and January 0.1; August records 17.3 and September 16. Put another way: in December, on average, it does not rain on a single day of the month, and in August it rains on more than half the days.
02 The heat runs on its own
The hottest month is neither the wettest nor the driest: it is March, right on the hinge. And that is where the two bad things meet.
Temperature does not follow the same pattern as water, and that offset is the key to choosing well. The mean high climbs from 35.2 degrees in January to a peak of 37.3 in March, and from there it falls: 32.9 in May, 29.5 in July and 28.7 in August. That is, the rainy season is the cool one.
The result is a month that concentrates the worst of both worlds: March. It has the year's highest mean high, 37.3 degrees, and humidity has already risen to 56.1 %. April follows closely, at 35.6 degrees and 71.5 % humidity, and there 72.8 millimetres already begin to fall.
The lows tell the other half of the story. In December and January they fall to 17.7 and 18.5 degrees, which allows genuinely comfortable nights. In the wet months they stay between 21.6 and 24.4, and at 85 % humidity those nights do not cool down: it is the part most underestimated when planning.
03 The harmattan dust
The dry season brings with it a phenomenon that does not appear in the table and is worth knowing about: the harmattan, a continental wind arriving loaded with dust. Its characteristic effect is a dry haze that whitens the sky and cuts visibility, precisely in the months when there are no clouds.
It is a paradox that throws anyone arriving with the table in hand. December and January each add up to 278 hours of sunshine, but that does not guarantee a clean blue sky: there can be whole days of white, diffuse light, with the horizon erased and the granite masses reduced to pale silhouettes.
For most trips the harmattan is a minor nuisance, and for some not even that. It matters above all if you are coming for the landscape or to photograph: the granite masses of the area lose much of their presence when the air is loaded. If that is your case, it is worth watching the forecast in the preceding days.
04 Which month to pick
The good window is short and very clear: November, December and January. They are the three months in which little rain — 9.7, 1.3 and 0.8 millimetres — plenty of sun — 275, 278 and 278 hours — manageable humidity — 65.8 %, 50.9 % and 44.4 % — and mild nights of 19.7, 17.7 and 18.5 degrees all coincide.
December is probably the best of the three, because it adds up to zero rain days and 50.9 % humidity, halfway between the summer mugginess and January's extreme dryness. February still works as far as water goes — 5.9 millimetres — but the mean high already climbs to 36.9 degrees.
The months to avoid run from April to September, for reasons that accumulate. April and May combine heat and rain; from June to September precipitation runs from 194.4 to 308.3 millimetres with up to 17.3 rain days, humidity settles between 84.7 % and 88 % and sunshine falls to August's 154 hours.
