🇩🇿Algeria

Algeria spans 18°58′ to 37°06′N as the largest country in Africa, covering approximately 2.38 million km² from the Mediterranean coast through the Tell Atlas and Saharan Atlas mountain ranges into the immense Sahara desert that dominates eighty percent of the territory. The Hoggar Mountains in the deep south rise to Mount Tahat at 2,908 m.

Major Köppen regimes include Mediterranean Csa along the narrow north coast (Algiers, Oran, Annaba), warm Mediterranean and steppe Bsh on the High Plateaus between the two Atlas ranges, hot semi-arid BSh transitioning to hot arid BWh across the Saharan piedmont, hyperarid BWh across the central Sahara (Tamanrasset, In Salah, the Erg Chech and Erg Chebbi sand seas), and milder BSh or Csb at altitude in the Hoggar.

Algiers on the coast averages 12°C in January and 26°C in August with 600 mm of winter-concentrated rainfall. Oran is drier at around 340 mm with classic Mediterranean rhythm. Sétif on the High Plateaus sees occasional winter snow. Tamanrasset in the Saharan Hoggar at 1,400 m is paradoxically mild, averaging 12°C in winter and 28°C in summer with only 50 mm of rain.

Algeria has recorded extreme temperatures and diverse precipitation variability. In Salah in the central Sahara regularly records summer temperatures exceeding 50°C, with the national record of 51.3°C measured at Ouargla on 5 July 2018; Tinerkouk in the southeast reached 51.4°C in 2024.

Recent events include Saharan flash floods in Tamanrasset in 2022, occasional snowfall and cold snaps in the Atlas Mountains, and recurrent drought across the Tell agricultural belt. The north coast experiences intensifying heat stress with increasing frequency of high-temperature days. Desert winds including the sirocco and Chergui bring sustained heat in summer months.

Our archive covers 1 Algerian cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Algiers, around 29.5°C, while Algiers records the coldest January nights near 9°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.9°C.