🇱🇾Libya

Libya spans 19°30′–33°10′N as a North African country (~1,759,540 km²) on the central Mediterranean coast bordering Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Algeria, and Tunisia, with a 1,770 km Mediterranean coast (the longest of any African Mediterranean country); ~95% of the country is Saharan desert — the Murzuq Sand Sea, the Calanshio Sand Sea, the Tibesti foothills (Bikku Bitti at 2,267 m on the Chadian border, the country's highest peak); narrow Mediterranean fringes — the Jefara plain around Tripoli, the green Jebel Akhdar (Cyrenaica) above Benghazi; produces a sharp climate gradient — hot-summer Mediterranean (Csa) on the narrow coastal strip, hot semi-arid (BSh) in transitional zones, and hot desert (BWh) across the vast interior, with the cold semi-arid (BSk) Tibesti highlands receiving rare frost.

Tripoli averages 12°C in January and 27°C in August with 380 mm rainfall almost entirely Nov–Mar; Benghazi 13°C / 27°C with 270 mm; the Jebel Akhdar receives 600 mm at altitude; Sebha in the south 11°C / 32°C with 10 mm — Libyan deep-Sahara aridity; Ghadames 10°C / 32°C with 35 mm; Murzuq 10°C / 33°C with under 10 mm. The famous 1922 Aziziyah reading of 58°C was discredited by WMO in 2012, but Libya routinely records 50°C in inland summer.

Libya experienced multiple climate-related hazards and water stress between 2020 and 2024. In September 2023, Storm Daniel caused heavy rainfall that triggered failures in the Derna dam system, resulting in over 4,000 deaths, one of Africa's most significant flood disasters on record. Recurrent Saharan dust storms (ghibli winds) bring extreme conditions.

The Jebel Akhdar region and Mediterranean coast face accelerating coastal erosion at Benghazi. A multi-year drought has intensified across the Jefara plain, while groundwater depletion continues in the Great Man-Made River fossil-aquifer wells that supply major population centers. Heat stress in the Sahara region has increased, contributing to climate-driven migration pressure along Sahel corridors.

Our archive covers 19 Libyan cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Al Jadīd, around 37.4°C, while Sabha records the coldest January nights near 4.3°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.6°C.