🇳🇪Niger

Niger spans 11°41′–23°31′N as a vast landlocked West African country (approximately 1,267,000 km²) bordering Algeria, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Mali. The landscape is dominated by the Saharan north — featuring the Aïr Mountains rising to Mont Bagzane at 2,022 m (the country's highest peak), the Ténéré Desert with its iconic Tree of Ténéré marking the world's loneliest tree until 1973, and the Djado Plateau — the Sahel transition belt across the centre, the Niger River corridor in the southwest, and the Lake Chad shore in the southeast. This produces a sharp climate gradient: hot desert (BWh) covering the northern two-thirds, hot semi-arid (BSh) in the central Sahel including Niamey, and a thin band of tropical savanna (Aw) in the deep south.

Niamey averages 23°C in January and 35°C in May with 540 mm rainfall almost entirely from the West African monsoon June–September. Maradi records 22°C in January and 33°C in May with 580 mm, Tahoua 19°C and 35°C with 380 mm, Zinder 21°C and 33°C with 460 mm, Agadez at the Aïr foothills 17°C and 35°C with 160 mm, Bilma in the Ténéré 14°C and 36°C with only 20 mm, and the Aïr Mountains around Mont Bagzane 12°C with rare frost.

The pre-monsoon hot season April–May regularly exceeds 45°C across central Niger; Bilma reached 49.5°C in 2010. Major events include the severe Sahel droughts of 1972–73, 1984–85, and 2010 that triggered famines killing tens of thousands, the severe August 2020 and August 2024 Niamey Niger River floods (the highest river levels in over a century), recurrent severe locust upsurges driven by ENSO-modulated rainfall variability, the severe April 2024 West African heatwave with central Niger reaching 48°C, accelerating Sahel desertification, intensifying harmattan dust transport, the 2020 Diffa Lake Chad shoreline retreat, and growing climate-driven migration pressure.

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