Geography
The city is built in hilly country, sprawling across about four ridges and the valleys in between. The city centre is located on one of these ridges, with the main government area on another. The tops of the ridges have an average elevation of 1,600 metres (5,250 ft), while the valleys are around 1,300 m (4,270 ft). The bigger houses and office buildings tend to be on the tops of the ridges, while the poorer people live in the valleys. The city is ringed most of the way round by higher hills, with some suburban sprawl rising up these. The highest of these is Mt. Kigali, with an elevation of 1,850 m (6,075 ft) above sea level.
| Climate data for Kigali, Rwanda | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 26.9 (80.4) |
27.4 (81.3) |
26.9 (80.4) |
26.2 (79.2) |
25.9 (78.6) |
26.4 (79.5) |
27.1 (80.8) |
28.0 (82.4) |
28.2 (82.8) |
27.2 (81.0) |
26.1 (79.0) |
26.4 (79.5) |
26.89 (80.41) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 15.6 (60.1) |
15.8 (60.4) |
15.7 (60.3) |
16.1 (61.0) |
16.2 (61.2) |
15.3 (59.5) |
15.0 (59.0) |
16.0 (60.8) |
16.0 (60.8) |
15.9 (60.6) |
15.5 (59.9) |
15.6 (60.1) |
15.73 (60.31) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 76.9 (3.028) |
91.0 (3.583) |
114.2 (4.496) |
154.2 (6.071) |
88.1 (3.469) |
18.6 (0.732) |
11.4 (0.449) |
31.1 (1.224) |
69.6 (2.74) |
105.7 (4.161) |
112.7 (4.437) |
77.4 (3.047) |
950.9 (37.437) |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 11 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 133 |
| Source: World Meteorological Organization | |||||||||||||
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