Month by month
Samburu in December
December eases off from November. Rainfall drops from 91 mm to 60 mm and rain days from eleven to six, while the afternoon stays mild at 29.3°C. The short rains are still running, and the price of a bed changes halfway through the month.
If you only want the answer
The gentler half of the short rains, with green country, migrant birds and roughly one wet day in five. Two Decembers sit inside one month: low-season flights until 15 December, then the festive premium from the 16th, with the weather identical either side of that line.
The short rains ease
December's normals are 60 mm over six rain days, days of 29.3°C and nights of 18.4°C. Set against November's 91 mm over eleven days, that is a third less rain on roughly half the days, and it is the month in which the year starts turning back towards the short dry window of January and February.
It stays cool by the standards of this place. Only November is milder in the afternoon, and December's nights of 18.4°C are the second lowest of the year after January's 18.2°C. Anyone who remembers northern Kenya as relentlessly hot is remembering September.
Two Decembers in one month
The climate does not change on 16 December and the price does. Safarilink's 2026 timetable runs low season to 15 December and high season from 16 to 31 December, and the camps follow the same festive pattern: Sarara's published rate card puts its top figure of $1,515 per person a night on July, August and the festive period.
So the first half of the month is the value half, with identical weather to the second. If the dates are flexible, the week before the 16th is the one to aim for. The gate charge ignores the calendar entirely: $85 for a non-resident adult at Samburu National Reserve, $70 at Buffalo Springs or Shaba.
What you will actually see
Green country, scattered game and birds. The migrants that arrived in November stay until April, the resident dry-country species are in breeding colour, and the reserves are quiet until the festive traffic arrives. Elephants remain the most reliable sighting in any month, with more than 900 individuals known to be using these reserves.
Plan around water rather than heat. A 4x4 with high clearance is the vehicle, the sandy luggas can run after a storm, and the crossing between Samburu and Buffalo Springs is worth asking your camp about before you count on it, since the bridge over the Ewaso Ng'iro has been rebuilt twice and no official confirmation of its 2026 status exists.