Rain Outlook
Where the rainy season stands: the last 30 days against the 30-year average, the week ahead, and what the rain means for the road and the crossing.
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Where the rainy season stands: the last 30 days against the 30-year average, the week ahead, and what the rain means for the road and the crossing.
Bonthe is one of the wettest towns anywhere — well over three metres of rain in a normal year, nearly all of it between May and November. This page shows where the season actually stands: the last 30 days against the 30-year average, and the week ahead.
It is the peak rains — the heaviest months, roughly 500–600 mm each — when the dirt road from Bo degrades and the sea turns rough.
| Season | When | |
|---|---|---|
| Dry season | 1 December – 30 April | |
| Early rains | 1 May – 31 May | |
| Peak rains | 1 June – 30 September | now |
| Late rains | 1 October – 30 November |
Dates and monthly figures come from 1991–2020 weather-model averages (ERA5) for this stretch of coast; the season's start and end drift by a few weeks from year to year.
That is close to typical for these dates.
7 of the next 7 days are forecast to bring 1 mm of rain or more, with about 120 mm in total (typical for this week: 113 mm).
| Day | Rain | Chance of rain |
|---|---|---|
| Fri 12 Jun (today) | 18 mm | 99% |
| Sat 13 Jun | 16 mm | 94% |
| Sun 14 Jun | 23 mm | 98% |
| Mon 15 Jun | 14 mm | 97% |
| Tue 16 Jun | 18 mm | 100% |
| Wed 17 Jun | 23 mm | 96% |
| Thu 18 Jun | 9 mm | 98% |
Heavy rain usually brings wind and waves with it — the January 2023 capsize that killed eleven people was attributed to heavy waves. In the peak months expect more delayed and cancelled boats, and check the crossing conditions page before walking to the wharf.
The mainland leg is a dirt road past Bo. In the rains it slows badly — drivers advise a 4x4 — and the usual 5–7 hours from Freetown stretches further.
People who work on this estuary told Mongabay that flooding now comes almost every year where it used to come every third year, and erosion has already eaten the Yargoi jetty. Wet-season storms are when both bite hardest.
Updated 12 June at 19:21. Rain figures are weather-model estimates for the area around Bonthe town — useful for comparing periods, not exact bucketfuls; one valley can catch a storm the next one misses. The “typical” figures are 1991–2020 averages from the same modelling family (ERA5), so the comparison is like-for-like. Weather data by Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0).