Climatology
This page presents Tanzania's climate context for the current climatology, 1991-2020, derived from observed, historical data. Information should be used to build a strong understanding of current climate conditions in order to appreciate future climate scenarios and projected change. You can visualize data for the current climatology through spatial variation, the seasonal cycle, or as a time series. Analysis is available for both annual and seasonal data. Data presentation defaults to national-scale aggregation, however sub-national data aggregations can be accessed by clicking within a country, on a sub-national unit. Other historical climatologies can be selected from the Time Period dropdown list.
Observed, historical data is produced by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of University of East Anglia. Data is presented at a 0.5º x 0.5º (50km x 50km) resolution.
Along the coast and in the off shore islands of Tanzania, the average temperature ranges between 27°C and 29°C, while in the central, northern and western parts temperatures range between 20°C and 30°C. Temperatures are higher between December and March, and coolest between June and July. The long rains begin in March and end in May, while the short rains begin in October and continues to early December. In general, annual rainfall varies from 550 mm in the central part of the country up to 3690 mm in some parts of south-western highlands.