🇷🇼Rwanda

Rwanda (26,338 km²) occupies the East African highlands between 1°04'–2°51'S, spanning elevations from 950 m at the Rusizi River along the western border to 4,507 m at Mount Karisimbi in the Virunga volcanic chain. Known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, the country features dramatic topography — the volcanic Virunga Mountains forming the northwestern border with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo including six dormant volcanoes, the Congo-Nile Divide running north-south through western Rwanda creating the drainage divide between the Nile and Congo basins, the central plateau with rolling hills averaging 1,500–2,000 m where most agriculture occurs, Lake Kivu forming the western border (480 km of shoreline), and the eastern savannas and wetlands including Akagera National Park at lower elevations.

Rwanda's tropical highland climate (Köppen Cwb/Cfb) is moderated by altitude — the central plateau averages 16–17°C year-round with two rainy seasons (long rains February–May dropping 40–50% of annual precipitation, short rains September–December), while the Virunga highlands remain cooler at 10–15°C with heavier rainfall exceeding 1,800 mm annually, and eastern lowlands reach 20–21°C with 700–900 mm. This equatorial location means minimal temperature variation between seasons but extreme rainfall variability between and within seasons.

Kigali at 1,567 m averages 19°C in July and 21°C in February with 990 mm annual rainfall concentrated in the two rainy seasons. Gisenyi on Lake Kivu records 19°C and 20°C with 1,200 mm plus lake moderation. Ruhengeri in the Virunga foothills 17°C and 18°C with 1,400 mm as one of Rwanda's wettest zones supporting mountain gorilla habitat in Volcanoes National Park. Butare on the southern plateau 18°C and 19°C with 1,100 mm.

Kibungo in the eastern lowlands 21°C and 22°C with 850 mm as Rwanda's warmest and driest region. Rwanda faces severe flood and landslide events driven by intensifying rainfall extremes — the severe May 2023 Northern and Western Province floods and landslides killed over 130 people when torrential rains triggered massive slope failures in Rubavu, Ngororero, Nyabihu, and Rutsiro districts destroying over 5,000 homes; the severe May 2018 Nyabihu floods and landslides killed 18 people; the severe May 2020 Kigali floods killed 65 people across multiple districts when a single 24-hour storm dropped record rainfall.

Climate stresses include accelerating inter-seasonal rainfall variability threatening subsistence agriculture that feeds 70% of the population, increasing frequency of extreme daily rainfall events triggering deadly landslides on densely populated hillsides, warming-driven upward shift of Volcanoes National Park vegetation zones stressing critically endangered mountain gorillas (880 individuals remaining), declining predictability of traditional planting seasons, and intensifying droughts in eastern Rwanda.

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