🇰🇼Kuwait

Kuwait is a small (17,818 km²) Western Asian country at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq and Saudi Arabia, with a 499 km coastline including Bubiyan, Failaka, and Warba islands. Almost entirely a low desert plain (the highest natural point reaches just 306 m), the landscape features a few wadis (Wadi Al-Batin marking the Iraqi border) and the shallow Kuwait Bay.

This topography produces an exceptionally hot desert climate: hot desert (BWh) across the entire country with no significant variation, modulated by the Gulf's warm waters in summer and dry continental influences in winter. Kuwait City stands among the world's hottest national capitals.

Kuwait City has January highs of 20°C (lows 8°C) and July highs of 47°C with only 116 mm of rainfall, almost entirely falling in winter November–April. Mitribah in the inland north recorded the famous 53.9°C in July 2016, later verified by WMO, one of the highest reliably-measured temperatures on Earth.

Summer maxima above 50°C are routine during July–August, with readings above 53°C in 2016 and 2021. Shamal northwest winds bring frequent dust storms.

Climate events include the November 2018 Kuwait City flash floods (close to a year's average rainfall within the month), recurrent shamal dust storms, the lasting environmental impacts of the 1991 Gulf War oil fires, mid-summer heatwaves intensifying outdoor-work challenges, and accelerating Gulf coastal salinization and groundwater stress. These events have shaped the region's water management, ecological recovery, and climate adaptation strategies.

Our archive covers 4 Kuwaiti cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.7°C.