🇲🇱Mali

Mali spans 10°09′–25°00′N as a vast landlocked West African nation covering approximately 1,240,192 km² and bordering Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, and Mauritania. The Niger River carves its famous great bend through the Sahel, sweeping from the southwest to the northeast before turning south into Niger — defining the country's geography and lifeline.

Mali exhibits an extraordinary climate gradient from the wet Sudanian savanna in the deep south to the hyperarid central Sahara in the northern two-thirds. Key features include the Adrar des Ifoghas highlands in the northeast, the dramatic Bandiagara Escarpment of Dogon Country, the Inner Niger Delta (Africa's largest inland delta and a critical wetland for migratory birds), the historic desert cities of Timbuktu, Djenné, and Gao, and the country's highest peak Hombori Tondo at 1,155 m. This produces a pronounced climate spectrum — tropical savanna (Aw) in the deep south around Sikasso and Bamako, hot semi-arid (BSh) across the central Sahel, and hot desert (BWh) dominating the northern expanses.

Bamako averages 25°C in January and 32°C in May with 1,090 mm rainfall concentrated almost entirely during the West African monsoon June–September. Sikasso in the wet south records 24°C in January and 30°C in May with 1,160 mm. Mopti in the Sahel averages 22°C in January and 33°C in May with 530 mm. Timbuktu on the desert fringe registers 21°C in January and 35°C in May with 200 mm.

Gao on the Niger bend records 21°C in January and 36°C in May with 230 mm. Kidal in the remote Adrar highlands averages 18°C in January and 36°C in May with 100 mm. Tessalit at the Saharan margin endures 16°C in January and 36°C in May with 90 mm. The pre-monsoon hot season April–May regularly exceeds 45°C across central Mali — the country holds an unverified African record of 49.0°C at Araouane in 1945.

Major climate events include the severe Sahel droughts of 1972–73, 1984–85, and 2010–12 that displaced millions and fundamentally reshaped land-use, recurrent severe flooding in the Inner Niger Delta compounded by upstream damming (notably the 2020 floods), the severe April 2024 West African heatwave reaching 48.5°C at Kayes, the 1980s famine intensified by climate stress, accelerating Sahel desertification, and intensifying harmattan dust transport southward.

Our archive covers 1 Malian cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Bamako, around 29.7°C, while Bamako records the coldest January nights near 17.8°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.9°C.5°C at Kayes, recurrent severe Inner Niger Delta flooding, and accelerating Sahel desertification.