The rains, honestly
Samburu in the rains: two green seasons, not one
Samburu takes 429 mm of rain a year and it arrives in two separate seasons. The short rains of November and December are the heavier pair, with November the wettest month of the year. The long rains of March and April are lighter on the card and fall in fewer, bigger storms. The two seasons ask different things of you, so they are worth separating before you book.
If you only want the answer
The short rains are the wetter season here, which catches most people out. November brings 91 mm over 11 rain days and December 60 mm over 6, against 68 mm in March and 70 mm in April. Rain spreads the game away from the Ewaso Ng'iro and thickens the bush, so expect fewer animals per hour in either season. The gate fee never drops, $85 at Samburu and $70 at Buffalo Springs or Shaba, while the Nairobi flights go to low season from 1 April to 15 June and from 1 November to 15 December. Come in the rains for migrant birds, newborn game and empty tracks, and bring a 4x4.
Two wet seasons on one river
The reserves lie at 0.62 degrees north, close enough to the equator for the sun to pass overhead twice a year, and the rain follows it. The long rains build through March, 68 mm over eight rain days, and peak in April at 70 mm over seven. The short rains are heavier: 91 mm over 11 days in November and 60 mm over six in December.
The arithmetic per storm runs the other way from the totals. April's 70 mm falls across seven rain days and December's 60 mm across six, roughly 10 mm a day when it does rain, while November spreads 91 mm over 11 days and March 68 mm over eight. So the short rains interrupt more often and the long rains hit harder when they land.
Temperature barely enters the choice, and what movement there is favours the rains. November is the coolest month of the year by day at 28.9°C and December is close behind at 29.3°C, against 31.6°C in March and 31.5°C in April. Nights sit between 18.4°C and 20.6°C across all four.
| Month | Average max | Rainfall | Rain days | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March | 31.6°C | 68 mm | 8 | Long rains |
| April | 31.5°C | 70 mm | 7 | Long rains, the peak |
| November | 28.9°C | 91 mm | 11 | Short rains, wettest month of the year |
| December | 29.3°C | 60 mm | 6 | Short rains, easing |
Figures are Open-Meteo climate normals for 1991 to 2020, taken at 0.62 north, 37.68 east.
What rain does to a river park
Dry-season Samburu runs on one piece of water. By September the seasonal pans have gone, the reserves have taken 11 mm across four months, and the Ewaso Ng'iro is the only permanent water in the landscape. Elephants come down to drink and cross it daily, the doum palms and riverine bush along it hold the leopard chances, and Nile crocodiles are in the water in numbers. You park at the river and let the reserve come past.
Rain cancels that arrangement. The sandy luggas fill, water appears across the bush country away from the river, and the animals no longer have to come to you. Game is still here in the same numbers, it is simply spread across three reserves and the community land around them, so plan on fewer sightings per hour than a dry-season page will promise.
What the rains give back is different rather than smaller. Newborn game, storm light over the Ol Olokwe country, migrant birds in residence, and tracks with almost nobody else on them. Our wildlife page has the odds species by species if you want to judge the trade yourself.
The short rains: wetter, cooler, and the birding season
November and December are the stronger half of the wet year for a visitor, despite carrying more rain. The Palaearctic migrants that leave the northern winter are here from November to April, on top of the dry-country residents: vulturine guineafowl, Somali ostrich, golden-breasted starling, superb starling, lilac-breasted roller, white-headed buffalo weaver and both red-billed and Von der Decken's hornbill.
Be careful with bird totals for this area. Wikipedia gives more than 350 species for Samburu National Reserve without citing a source, and the figure of 450 that circulates in the travel trade has no independent source we could trace, so treat 350 as the defensible number and anything higher as unverified.
The pricing suits the season too, at least on the flights. Safarilink's 2026 timetable has low season running 1 November to 15 December, with the festive premium only from 16 December. The first six weeks of the short rains are therefore the cheap slice, and they are also the coolest weeks of the year at 28.9°C by day.
The long rains: emptier, and April is the hardest month
April is the month to skip if your trip is short and this is your first safari here. It carries the heaviest storms of the year, the bush is at its thickest and the game at its most scattered, and the reserves offer nothing in compensation at the gate, since the fee is fixed by county law rather than by season.
March is a milder version of the same problem. The first ten days or so still behave like February, and the change shows up in the rain days more than the totals: four rain days a month in January and February, eight in March.
May is the exception worth knowing about. Rainfall drops to 30 mm across just two rain days, the country is still green from April, the tracks are drying and the Nairobi flights stay in low season until 15 June. It is the closest thing Samburu has to a value month.
Roads, luggas and the bridge
Getting here stays easy in the rain. The A2 from Nairobi through Nanyuki, Isiolo and Archer's Post is continuous tarmac and stays surfaced well beyond the reserves, so only the short run from the highway to each gate is murram. Two things to watch in 2026: KeNHA closed a stretch of the A2 between Isiolo and Kirish from 17 April to 15 May 2026 to rebuild a failed pavement, and on 8 February 2026 it announced a 147 km dual carriageway between Marua, Nanyuki and Isiolo, which is exactly the run you will be driving.
Inside the reserves, take a 4x4 with high clearance in any month and treat that as non-negotiable once it has rained. The tracks are sandy and follow the riverbanks and the dry luggas, and a lugga in a storm carries running water rather than dust. Samburu County itself describes the internal network as being in good to decent condition, with washboard corrugations on the main routes.
The bridge over the Ewaso Ng'iro between Samburu and Buffalo Springs has a history worth knowing. The river destroyed it in March 2010, the British Army rebuilt it and it reopened on 25 November 2010, it partly washed away again in 2011 and forced a 45 km detour, and it was repaired and reopened in February 2015. No source since then reports another washout and it is very probably open, though we could not find an official confirmation for 2026. Ask your camp before you plan a crossing in the rains.
Who should skip both green seasons
- First-time visitors with three or four days. The mechanism that makes this place work, game tied to one river, is exactly what rain switches off.
- Anyone in a 2WD. A high-clearance 2WD may manage the main tracks in the dry months; after rain the sandy luggas rule that out.
- Fixed itineraries with no slack, particularly if they involve crossing the river between the two counties.
- Bargain hunters aiming at late December. The festive premium lands from 16 December, in the middle of the short rains.
- Anyone expecting a migration. There is no annual mass movement and no river crossing spectacle here in any season.
If you come anyway
- Take a 4x4 with high clearance and leave slack in the schedule.
- Budget for paying twice if you plan to cross the river. Samburu is Samburu County at $85 and Buffalo Springs and Shaba are Isiolo County at $70, and there is no published reciprocity between them.
- Ask for an official receipt at the gate. Isiolo's own finance legislation requires one for every payment and tells the payer to demand it.
- Drive early and keep the afternoons flexible, since storms here tend to build later in the day.
- Bring binoculars from November. The migrants are the single best thing the wet season here does.