🇰🇪Kenya

Kenya spans 4°41′N–4°40′S, an East African country covering approximately 580,367 km² straddling the equator with a 536 km Indian Ocean coastline including Mombasa and Lamu, featuring dramatic topography that includes the Indian Ocean coastal lowland, the Tsavo savanna, the Great Rift Valley with its alkaline lakes such as Magadi, Naivasha, Nakuru, Bogoria, and Turkana which is the world's largest alkaline lake, the Central and Western Highlands rising on either side of the Rift, the iconic Mount Kenya at 5,199 m as the country's highest peak and Africa's second-highest, and the arid northern badlands. This produces an exceptional climate spectrum — tropical savanna (Aw, Aw'') across most of the country, hot semi-arid (BSh) and hot desert (BWh) in the north around Turkana and Mandera, tropical monsoon (Am) on the wet coast, subtropical highland (Cwb / Cfb) on the central highlands including Nairobi at 1,795 m, and tundra or ice cap (ET / EF) on Mount Kenya with active glaciers.

Nairobi at 1,795 m averages 19°C in July and 22°C in February with 850 mm annual rainfall divided between long rains (March–May) and short rains (October–December); Mombasa records 26–28°C with 1,030 mm; Lodwar 28°C with 200 mm; Mount Kenya summit averages −5°C with retreating glaciers including Lewis Glacier, which has lost over 90% of its area. Major events include multi-year droughts in 2010–11, 2016–17, and 2020–23 causing food insecurity and livestock losses, April–May 2024 floods with over 200 lives lost, Lake Victoria flooding, and coral bleaching at Watamu and Malindi.

Our archive covers 1 Kenyan cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Nairobi, around 21.6°C, while Nairobi records the coldest January nights near 13.5°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.4°C.