Visit Amboseli
EN
Where to stay

Month by month

Amboseli in February

February is Amboseli's short dry season and its hottest month. The grass dries off, the herds come back to the two swamps, and the wildebeest and zebra calves born on the plains are still small.

If you only want the answer

February is one of the better months for Amboseli: about 28 mm of rain, the year's hottest afternoons at 28.4°C, animals concentrating on the swamps and young wildebeest and zebra on the plains. Lodges are at mid season (Tortilis, Tawi) or high season (Ol Tukai), well below their July to October rates.

Amboseli weather in February: the short dry season

The climate normals give February 28.4°C in the afternoon, the highest of the year, with nights of 17.9°C and about 28 mm of rain, an approximate figure scaled to the station's measured annual mean. The baboon project's weather records call February the short dry season, the pause between the short rains and the long ones.

The heat has been rising for decades. The 2002 study of the research station's records found that daily maximum temperatures climbed by 0.275°C a year between 1976 and 2000, most of all in February and March, and Open-Meteo's archive for 2015 to 2024 puts recent February afternoons at about 30°C. Plan your drives for the early morning and late afternoon, and keep the middle of the day for the lodge.

Game back on the swamps, calves on the plains

With the short rains over, the plains herds gather near the swamps again, the pattern Expert Africa describes for the end of each dry season, and the wildebeest and zebra calving that begins early in the year runs on until the long rains arrive in March. The swamps are permanent, fed by springs from Kilimanjaro, so they hold the animals through the dry spell.

Palearctic migrants such as the Caspian plover are still in residence and stay into March, which makes February one of the few months when the dry-season mammals and the migrant birds overlap.

Kilimanjaro mornings and mid-season prices

February and March give the best Kilimanjaro odds outside the long dry season. On modelled cloud data about one February morning in five has a clear summit at dawn, against one in ten in April, and in every month the summit clouds over by the afternoon, so go out at first light.

Tortilis Camp charges $491 per person sharing on full board in its 2026 mid season, about 70 per cent of its $715 high-season rate. Ol Tukai Lodge, inside the park, is at high season on its 2026 card, $580 per double room on full board, and Tawi Lodge's bands put February in mid season. Safarilink's two daily flights from Wilson both run, because its high season lasts until 31 March.

Sources