In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), over 75% of the population must spend time walking to collect water from outside their home, with women and girls bearing the majority of the time burden. The proximity of households to their water source can affect child health, with more distant water sources associated with higher child diarrhea and mortality. Climate change is predicted to alter water availability in SSA through increased temperatures and changes in precipitation. Here, we used spatial first differences to estimate the causal effects of preceding weather over time periods ranging from one week to one year on household water fetching times. We merged nationally representative household survey data (n=979,759 observations collected from 34 countries) with geo- and temporally-linked precipitation and temperature preceding the date of each household survey. Increased precipitation reduced water fetching walk times; a 1cm increase in weekly rainfall over the past year was associated with a 5.1 min decrease in walking time. Elevated temperatures increased walk times; a 1°C increase in temperature over the past year was associated with a 1.2 min increase in walking time. Rural household water fetching times were more impacted by recent weather than in combined urban and rural households; however, higher electricity access in rural communities mitigated the effect. Our findings suggest that future climate change will increase the water fetching burden in SSA, but that co-provision of electricity and water infrastructure may be able to alleviate this burden.