Lamu sää — maaliskuu

The coast here is run by two winds with their own names, and March is where one hands over to the other. The kaskazi, the north-east monsoon, has held since November or December and keeps the first part of the month hot and dry. Then the wind swings east and south-east - the kusi - and the long rains follow, triggered around the equinox on about the 22nd, which is why regulars say the rains can arrive in the last few days of March. April, May and June are wet enough that coastal properties close and do not reopen until mid-June or early July. Our row reads the dry three-quarters: 29.1mm across 6.7 days, with 31.5C over 26.4C nights feeling like 37C and 31C. The record: 11 hours of sun, a 28.6C sea and AQI 33.

Regulars are specific weather here stays normally fine through most of this month, the short rains that mark the start of the wetter season typically not arriving in earnest until the very end of October or into November. Our row backs that hot, genuinely wet read, 29C reading as a scorching 33C, over 24.7C nights feeling 28C, with a substantial 52.1mm of rain across 10.9 days and humidity at 76 percent. Regulars are consistent this remains a genuinely viable month for wildlife viewing and general travel along the coast, real rain risk building only as the month winds down. The sea sits at a bath-warm 28.3C. The record: 11.2 hours of sun, a 19.2 kph wind and AQI 33.

Regulars call this Kenya's technical winter, but the coast stays tropical, warm to hot with humid days and cooler but rarely cold evenings - the real change this time of year is wind, not temperature, as the Kusi trade winds arrive and can make the sea genuinely choppy. Our row backs both halves, 27.2C reading as 29C over 23.9C nights, with rain a minor presence at 31.5mm across 11.3 days, tapering off from a wet season regulars say runs into mid-July. Regulars are clear the sun stays strong even on an overcast day this close to the equator, real sunscreen a necessity regardless of cloud cover. The sea sits at 26.2C. The record: humidity 76 percent, 10.9 hours of sun, a 24.9 kph wind and AQI 42.

September is the month the water clears again on this coast: regulars say snorkelling is poor from the end of April until about mid-September, so a trip in the second half of the month catches the turn, and September is not an off-season here in any case. Properties that shut for the wet months of April, May and June have long since reopened. Our row is gentler than January's: 28.1C over 24.1C rather than 30.8C, with 24.6mm across 7.9 precipitation days and a 21.5 kph breeze that January does not have. The sea is 27C. It still reads as 31C by day and 27C at night, so the middle of the day is for shade either way. The record: humidity 75 percent, 11.2 hours of sun and AQI 39.

January and February are Lamu's main season precisely because they are the hot dry months, and our row agrees on both halves: 12.3mm across 2.4 precipitation days, and 30.8C over a 25.5C night that reads as 35C and 29C. Regulars do not oversell it - one visitor found February unbelievably hot, too hot to do much, and expected January to be the kinder of the two. Plan around the middle of the day rather than through it. On dhows they are relaxed: there is no need to book ahead, captains tout for business once you arrive, and the new year dhow race is the event of the season, the winning boat sunk at the end. Donkeys and boats are the transport. The record: humidity 75 percent, 11 hours of sun, a 20.1 kph wind and a 27.8C sea.