🇹🇩Chad

Chad (approximately 1,284,000 km²) spans 7°–23°N across the transition from equatorial Africa to the Sahara, creating one of the continent's most dramatic climate gradients within a single nation. The landlocked country exhibits three distinct north-south bioclimatic zones: the hyperarid Sahara Desert (Köppen BWh) occupying roughly the northern 47% above 16°N with sand seas (ergs), rocky plateaus (regs), and the volcanic Tibesti Mountains reaching 3,445 m at Emi Koussi; the semi-arid Sahel belt (Köppen BSh) across the center from 10°–16°N supporting sparse acacia savanna and agropastoralism; and the Sudanian savanna zone (Köppen Aw) in the southern 15% below 10°N with woodland savanna, the Chari and Logone river systems, and the seasonal floodplains (yaérés) feeding into Lake Chad.

The capital N'Djamena (12°08′N, elevation 298 m) sits in the Sahel transition. Annual precipitation ranges from under 50 mm in the northern Sahara to over 1,000 mm in the humid southern savannas, concentrated in a single June–September rainy season driven by the northward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Mean annual temperatures range from 26°C in the wetter south to over 30°C in the Saharan north, with extreme pre-monsoon heat in March–May routinely exceeding 45°C and occasional Saharan maxima approaching 50°C.

N'Djamena (Sahel, 298 m elevation) averages 24°C in January and 33°C in July with approximately 560 mm annual rainfall concentrated June–September; severe pre-monsoon heat pushes March–May maxima to 42–45°C. Moundou (southern savanna, 8°37′N, 420 m) records 25°C in January and 28°C in July with around 1,030 mm, benefiting from longer rains and woodland cover.

Abéché (eastern Sahel, 13°50′N, 545 m) sees 21°C in January and 31°C in July with ~465 mm. Faya-Largeau (northern Sahara, 17°55′N, 231 m) endures 18°C in January and 35°C in July with a mere ~18 mm annually, experiencing some of the most extreme desert conditions in Africa.

The severe shrinkage of Lake Chad—from approximately 25,000 km² in the early 1960s to under 2,000 km² today, a loss exceeding 90%—resulted from persistent drought, over-extraction for irrigation, and reduced river inflows, severe fishing communities and displacing millions across the basin. The 1970s and 1980s Sahel droughts caused widespread famine, livestock collapse, and mass migration throughout the region.

In October 2022, N'Djamena experienced its worst flooding in over 30 years when torrential rains and Chari River overflow inundated neighborhoods, displacing more than one million people, destroying homes and infrastructure, contaminating water supplies, and triggering a cholera outbreak; the 2024 rainy season brought renewed severe flooding across southern Chad.

From November to March, the harmattan—a dry, dust-laden northeasterly wind from the Sahara—reduces visibility, cools temperatures slightly, and blankets the country in fine airborne particles. Climate projections indicate continued warming above the global average, increasingly erratic Sahel rainfall with intensified droughts and floods, further stress on Lake Chad's remnant waters, expansion of desert conditions southward, and growing humanitarian crises.

Our archive covers 0 Chadian cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940.