Rain outlook

Where the rainy season stands against the 30-year average, and the week ahead — for fish drying, the M5 and the lake.

[data-tool-body-wait]{display:none}This part of the page needs JavaScript, and this browser isn’t running it. Everything else on the page still reads.

This still hasn’t loaded. It looks stuck rather than slow, so reloading is worth a try now.

Reload the page Other tools for Nkhata Bay

About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Nkhata Bay and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

Where the year stands

It is the dry season — may tapers quickly; June through September are the dry months — the easy season for fish drying and for the roads. October warms up, and the first storms often arrive before the calendar says they should.

Season	When
Rainy season	1 November – 30 April
Dry season	1 May – 31 October	now

Season dates and monthly shapes come from 1991–2020 weather-model averages (ERA5) for the grid cell nearest town, which run wetter than the town's long-term station figure — trust the shape of the year more than any exact millimetre count, and expect the boundaries to drift by weeks from year to year.

Day

Rain

Chance of rain

Mon, 12 Oct (today)

4 mm

57%

Tue, 13 Oct

0 mm

35%

Wed, 14 Oct

0 mm

47%

Thu, 15 Oct

0 mm

55%

Fri, 16 Oct

0 mm

20%

Sat, 17 Oct

0 mm

27%

Sun, 18 Oct

0 mm

16%

Worth knowing

Fish drying

Rain interrupting usipa drying is a documented pressure point — it is what pushed some processors toward an illegal pesticide shortcut exposed in October 2025. The fisheries office's answer is salting and proper drying; the dry months are the forgiving season.

The roads

The M5 lakeshore road south is the rainy season's casualty — rains in late December 2025 cut off the Northern Region for at least four days. The rebuilt Mzuzu road holds up better.

The lake

The rainy months are also the rough months on the water, when sailings are likeliest to be delayed or cancelled. The lake crossing page on this site reads the wind over the open water day by day.

Rain outlook

About these tools

Where the year stands

The last 30 days

The week ahead

Worth knowing

Fish drying

The roads

The lake