🇧🇮Burundi

Burundi sits at about 3°S in East Africa's Great Lakes region, landlocked and dominated by a highland plateau averaging about 1,700 m. The terrain slopes east from the Lake Tanganyika rift (lake surface around 770 m, depth 1,470 m) up to the Congo–Nile divide ridge, peaking at Mt Heha at roughly 2,670 m. This setting yields a tropical highland climate moderated by altitude: tropical savanna (Aw) at lakeside, grading to Cwb temperate highland on the plateau.

Bujumbura, on Lake Tanganyika at about 775 m, sees highs of 28–30°C and nights around 17–19°C year-round and receives roughly 850–950 mm of rain split between two wet seasons (February to May and September to December). The inland capital Gitega, on the central plateau, is cooler and collects about 1,200 mm annually, while the high ridges gather 1,500–1,800 mm.

Severe deforestation accelerates soil erosion and landslides, floods strike the low-lying Tanganyika shoreline, and lake levels have been rising for decades. ENSO modulates rainfall (El Niño years tend to bring wetter short rains, La Niña drier ones) within a double-rainy-season pattern driven by the ITCZ.

Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 0.9°C.