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The climate of Ethiopia
Ethiopia is a country situated in the east of Africa. After the independence of neighbouring country Eritrea in 1991 (accepted by UN in 1993) Ethiopia is separated from the Red Sea. During the many decades when Eritrea was still a province of Ethiopia the country had hundreds of kilometers of coastline. Ethiopia has a number of geological characteristics that have a strong influence on the climate. Central in Ethiopia lies the green Ethiopian Highland where due to the elevation prevails mainly a mixture of warm and moderate Mediterranean and china climates. The dividing line between moderate and warm climates is particularly confined by the altitude of a location. West and south of the Ethiopian Highland prevails the warm and in the summer months wet tropical savannah climate. East of the highland the landscape changes into the drier highland of Somalia where aride climate types dominate. In the north-east and south-east prevails the warm desert climate, the higher situated plains have a warm steppe climate.

Climate information of places and areas in Ethiopia
The climate information on this page is only brief. Specific information about weather and climate can be found on the climate pages per area or town. As for Ethiopia the following climate information is available:

Precipitation
Ethiopia has a capricious pattern of precipitation. First of all, rather large differences in the total amount of precipitation can be noticed, particularly in the country itself. The enormous variations in landscape and elevation make it a country in which there are splendid green sanctuaries, but also large areas where drought causes hunger and disease. On the other hand the highest mountaintops of Ethiopia are white with snow. Some tops in the highlands even have everlasting snow, such as the 4377 meter high mountain Tullo Deëmte.

Temperatures
Due to the highlands and mountains in most places in Ethiopia the temperatures turn out lower than you would expect because of its situation in relation to the equator. Areas where the temperature during the daytime reaches the tropical limit of thirty degrees practically throughout the year, are mainly to be found in the east of Ethiopia and along the borderland with Sudan and Kenia. In the Ethiopian highland in most places the day temperature gets stuck between 22 and 29 degrees centigrade, in addition to which the course of the temperature in a calendar-year is also variable per location. Thus Mekele has the warmest month in June, after which during the wettest month of July the average temperature suddenly drops by four degrees. Gore, situated in the west, has a more gradual course of temperature, with which March is the warmest month and during the rainy season the temperature on an average reaches 22-23 degrees.

Climate figures
Scattered over Ethiopia you find different climate data and temperatures. The data in the table below go for the capital of Addis Abeba and cannot be considered an average for the country. Visit the individual climate information pages for the climate data of other places in Ethiopia.

	average  maximum temperature (°C)	average minimum temperature (°C)	average hours of sunshine per day	average days with precipitation per month	average mm precipitation per month	average sea temperature (°C)
January	22	5	9	4		n/a
February	23	7	9	5		n/a
March	23	9	9	7		n/a
April	23	9	8	10		n/a
May	23	9	7	12		n/a
June	22	9	7	12		n/a
July	20	10	6	11		n/a
August	20	9	6	13		n/a
September	20	9	7	10		n/a
October	21	7	8	8		n/a
November	21	5	9	5		n/a
December	21	5	10	4		n/a
= 0-5 mm ● = 6-30 mm ● = 31-60 mm ● = 61-100 mm ● = 101-200 mm ● = over 200 mm = 0-0.2 inches ● = 0.2-1.2 inches ● = 1.2-2.4 inches ● = 2.5-4 inches ● = 4.1-8 inches ● = over 8 inches

More climate information
Climate figures come in handy, but do not offer a complete impression of the climate and the possible weather circumstances within a certain period. How big the chance is of wintry weather, (extreme) heat or hurricanes cannot often be found in figures. Therefore we monthly offer useful extra climate information. The information below goes for the capital of Addis Abeba. For information about particular areas and places in Ethiopia please visit the specific climate pages of those places and/or areas.

	chance of (very) hot weather	chance of (very) cool weather	chance of long-term precipitation	chance of hurricanes (cyclones)	chance of sunny days	UV-index
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
click here for the explanation of the symbols

Disclaimer
The information at this site was carefully composed from climate data collected by meteorological services, meteorological offices, climate experts and other sources. “More climate info” is based on statistics, climate data and personal experience. No rights can be derived from this site. Weather has no memory and gives no guaranties. Nothing is as changeable and unpredictable as the weather. The authors of this site feel in no way responsible for any damages caused by misinterpretation or other circumstances that may influence your holiday or trip to a certain destination. We provide information, it’s up to the reader to use it to it’s benefit.