🇨🇩DR Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (5°20′N–13°27′S), Africa's second-largest country, straddles the equator and encompasses the vast central Congo Basin rainforest at 200–500 m elevation, the eastern Albertine Rift highlands rising above 5,100 m at the Rwenzori Mountains and Mount Stanley (5,109 m), active volcanoes including Nyiragongo (3,470 m), and the southern Katanga plateau at 1,200–1,500 m. The country exhibits three distinct Köppen regimes: equatorial rainforest (Af) across the central basin, tropical savanna (Aw) on the southern Katanga and northern Bas-Uele fringes, and temperate highland (Cwb) in the eastern volcanic highlands.

Kinshasa averages 25°C year-round with 1,400 mm of rain and a marked June–August dry season. The central Congo Basin around Mbandaka experiences uniformly hot and humid conditions at 25–26°C with 1,800–2,000 mm annually and almost no dry season. Lubumbashi on the southern plateau is notably cooler, averaging 20°C with ~1,200 mm falling from November through March. Goma, at 1,500 m on Lake Kivu's shore, sees a pleasant 19°C average.

The eastern volcanic highlands receive 1,500–2,000 mm. Intertropical Convergence Zone migration drives a dual rainy regime north of the equator versus a single southern-hemisphere summer wet season in the south. Major hazards include Nyiragongo eruptions (2002, 2021), Lake Kivu limnic risk, recurrent severe Congo River basin flooding, and deforestation threatening critical forest-rainfall feedbacks.

Our archive covers 39 Congolese cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Tshikapa, around 33.2°C, while Butembo records the coldest January nights near 12.9°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.4°C.