Addis Ababa sits high on the central Ethiopian plateau at roughly 2,355 meters (7,726 feet), one of the highest capital cities in the world. That altitude is the single most important fact about its climate: even though the city lies just north of the equator, the thin mountain air keeps daytime temperatures mild and nights genuinely cool all year. You will not sweat through a tropical heatwave here, and you may well want a jacket after dark.

Because temperature barely shifts, the calendar in Addis is driven almost entirely by rain. The year splits into a long dry season (roughly October to May), a short rainy spell that can flicker through February and March, and the heavy summer rains known as kiremt from June to September. Sunshine, road conditions, festival timing, and how green the surrounding highlands look all hinge on which side of that rain line you land.

Layer in Ethiopia's extraordinary religious calendar, which follows its own Julian-based system, and timing becomes a question of what you want to witness. Come for crisp blue skies and easy day trips, or come for Timkat and Meskel, two of the most spectacular Orthodox Christian celebrations on the continent.