In Nosy Be (or Nossi-bé), the climate is tropical, hot all year round, with a rainy, hotter season from November to April and a dry season from May to October.
The island is located off the northwest coast of Madagascar. In the austral summer, this area is affected by the hot and humid monsoon coming from the north-west, while in the austral winter, the cooler and drier south-east trade winds prevail. The climate of the neighbouring islands, such as Nosy Komba, Nosy Mitsio, Nosy Tanikely and Nosy Sakatia, is similar.
In the period that could be called winter, from June to September, the night temperature usually drops below 20 °C (68 °F), and sometimes, it can even drop to around 15/16 °C (59/61 °F), but during the day, it's almost always warm, thanks to the winds that blow from the interior of Madagascar.
Here are the average temperatures.

In an average year, about 2,200 millimeters (86 inches) of rain fall. In the rainiest months (December, January and February), the rains are definitely frequent, in fact, they occur almost daily, and they can sometimes be torrential. On the contrary, at the height of the dry season, from June to September, rare showers occur, which become a bit more frequent in May and October.
Here is the average precipitation.

The amount of sunshine in Nosy Be is good from May to October, while it is acceptable in the rainiest months, from December to February, when, apart from showers and thunderstorms, the sun shines for a few hours a day. Here are the average sunshine hours per day.

From November to mid-May, Nosy Be may be affected by the tropical cyclones of the South-West Indian Ocean, which, in any case, are more common from January to March.



The sea in Nosy Be is warm enough to swim in all year round, since the water temperature ranges from 26 °C (79 °F) between July and October to 29 °C (84 °F) between January and April. Here are the average sea temperatures.

Best Time

The best time to go to Nosy Be goes from mid-May to October. In the first half of May, usually, the weather is already good, but there is still some risk, though low, of tropical cyclones, as happened with cyclone Kesiny, which affected this area around May 10, 2002.