Malindi 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.

Kenya's forum draws a clear line between inland 'winter' and the coast: Malindi stays warm and humid through August, one of the coolest stretches of the year here but still tropical, rarely genuinely cold even in the evenings. The typical rain pattern is rain-sun-rain-sun rather than an all-day soak, and it's common for one beach to get a shower while another just a couple of miles up the coast stays completely dry. Posters were clear that a rain forecast means a chance of a passing shower, not a washed-out day.

Forum posters describe February as hot, dry and sunny by day along Kenya's coast, including Malindi, with warm, balmy evenings and an onshore breeze that keeps things feeling pleasant rather than oppressive even when daytime temperatures run high. Posters are consistent that Kenya's rainy periods are fairly predictable - a shorter one around this time of year and a longer, heavier one from roughly late March through May - positioning February squarely within the drier stretch. Posters do note that even when a forecast shows rain, it typically means just a chance of a shower rather than an all-day washout, and rain in one part of the coast doesn't necessarily mean rain everywhere along it. Posters generally rate February as one of the more reliably good months for a Malindi beach visit.