🇧🇮Burundi

Burundi sits between 2°20′ and 4°27′S in East Africa's Great Lakes region, landlocked and dominated by a highland plateau that mostly ranges from 1,400 to 1,800 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 — equatorial Aw at lakeside, grading to Cwb temperate highland on the divide.

Bujumbura, on Lake Tanganyika at about 775 m, averages 23–24°C year-round and receives roughly 850 mm of rain split between two wet seasons (February to May and September to December). The inland capital Gitega, at 1,650 m, is cooler — daytime highs of 23–25°C and nights of 13–15°C — and collects about 1,200 mm annually, while high ridges above 2,000 m gather 1,500–2,000 mm.

Severe deforestation accelerates soil erosion and landslides, flash floods strike the Tanganyika shoreline, and lake levels have been rising for decades. ENSO modulates rainfall — La Niña years are wetter, El Niño drier — within an equator-side double-rainy-season pattern driven by the ITCZ.

Our archive covers 1 Burundian cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Bujumbura, around 25.9°C, while Bujumbura records the coldest January nights near 23.5°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 0.9°C.