Lagos weather by month — averages, rainfall & climate trends
Africa's most populous city fans out across Atlantic lagoons and barrier islands in southwestern Nigeria, living by the rhythm of a tropical year — a drenching wet season from the coast and dry months when the harmattan carries Saharan dust from the north. Average temperatures and rainfall by month, a climate graph, today's conditions versus the long-term average, and how the climate has shifted since 1940 — all on one page for Lagos, Nigeria.
Today vs average
+1.4°Cabout average
How it’s changed
Right now
What it's doing today vs the historical average for this date.
Right now
25.8°
28°25°28°25°
29°25°
27°26°28°25°28°25°28°25°On this date — July 19
About average
- Record high: 28.9° · 2023
- Record low: 22.0° · 1942
- One year ago: 27.2°
Every July 19 in history — coldest to hottest
Dots show daily highs (top) and lows (bottom) for each July 19 on record (n = 87). Outlined dots are today's forecast.
Area we sample
Each city's history comes from one ERA5 grid cell — about 28 km across, shown by the dashed box. Near mountains or coasts, conditions can vary across the cell.
Location & data
Historical weather for Lagos is sampled from the ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at 6.45°N, 3.39°E, with daily records since 1940.
- Coordinates
- 6.45°N, 3.39°E
- Time zone
- Africa/Lagos
- Period
- 1940–2026
- Data source
- ERA5 (ECMWF)
Last 30 days
31 of the last 31 days were warmer than the historical average for that date. Average difference: +1.2°C.
Each bar is one day, from morning low to afternoon high. Warm-colored bars are days whose mean ran above average; cool bars ran below. The dot inside the bar is the daily mean. The shaded band is the typical 10–90% range expected for that date. Average = the day's mean temperature averaged across every year of record (1940–2026) for that calendar date.
This date over the years
One dot per year — the mean temperature on this calendar date. Dots are warmer or cooler than the long-term average (dashed line); the shaded band is the typical 10–90% range, and the highlighted dot is today's forecast. Based on ERA5 reanalysis — modelled estimates, not station readings.
Weather by month
Average temperatures and rainfall for each month — what a typical year looks like, from the full record.Climate overview
Lagos spreads along a coastal lagoon system on the southwestern corner of Nigeria, separated from the open Atlantic by barrier islands and sand spits, with a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw). A well-defined wet season from roughly May through October brings heavy rainfall as moisture from the Atlantic moves northward with the Intertropical Convergence Zone, with June typically the wettest month. From November through April the dry season takes hold, with January and February the driest months of the year.
During the dry season, Lagos is periodically reached by the harmattan — a dry, dust-laden northeast trade wind that blows south from the Sahara across West Africa. Though less intense along the coast than further inland, the harmattan can arrive with force between December and early February, stripping moisture from the air and filling the atmosphere with a fine haze. The city's network of lagoons and barrier islands, which historically shaped its layout, also makes it acutely vulnerable to flooding and, over longer timescales, to the rising sea levels that are already affecting this low-lying coastline.
The year peaks in March, at 27.7°C over the day and around 29.8°C by mid-afternoon. In August, daily means drop to roughly 24.6°C, with nights dipping to 23.6°C.
The yearly total for Lagos comes to about 1864 mm; monthly amounts range from 45 mm in January up to 303 mm in June.
Comparing the record's first decade with its most recent one, Lagos now averages 1.4°C warmer than it did in the 1940s. Days above 30°C have grown noticeably more frequent — from around 30 a year in the first decade to about 145 in the last.
Climate graph (climograph)
March is the warmest month, August the coolest — a yearly swing of 3°C. Wettest month: June (~303 mm). Whole year averages ~1864 mm of rain.
Bars = average monthly rainfall (right axis). Lines = average daily high and low (left axis). Average = each month's value averaged across every year of record (1940–2026).
Monthly wind
Average daily peak wind at 10 m, by month.
Monthly solar energy
Average daily incoming solar energy in megajoules per square metre — a measured proxy for how sunny the month is.
Lagos month by month — what to expect
Typical conditions for each month, averaged across the full record (since 1940). Daylight is the time from sunrise to sunset. Record high/low are the most extreme values in the ERA5 dataset (modelled since 1940), so they can differ from official weather-station readings.
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Rain | Daylight | Record high | Record low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29.3° | 24.9° | 45 mm | 11.7 h | 32.6° (2025) | 19.0° (1957) |
| February | 29.9° | 25.7° | 66 mm | 11.8 h | 33.6° (1944) | 20.7° (1945) |
| March | 29.8° | 26.2° | 126 mm | 12.0 h | 32.9° (1998) | 22.9° (1967) |
| April | 29.6° | 26.1° | 167 mm | 12.1 h | 32.6° (2024) | 23.4° (1975) |
| May | 28.9° | 25.5° | 240 mm | 12.3 h | 32.0° (2023) | 23.0° (1967) |
| June | 27.5° | 24.6° | 303 mm | 12.4 h | 30.6° (2025) | 22.8° (1997) |
| July | 26.4° | 23.9° | 241 mm | 12.3 h | 29.1° (2024) | 21.2° (1954) |
| August | 26.1° | 23.6° | 148 mm | 12.2 h | 29.3° (2023) | 21.0° (1943) |
| September | 26.8° | 23.9° | 187 mm | 12.0 h | 29.5° (2023) | 21.7° (1950) |
| October | 27.8° | 24.5° | 183 mm | 11.9 h | 30.5° (2023) | 22.4° (1974) |
| November | 28.9° | 25.2° | 101 mm | 11.7 h | 32.1° (2024) | 23.0° (1975) |
| December | 29.2° | 25.0° | 55 mm | 11.6 h | 32.7° (2024) | 20.9° (1945) |
How it has changed
Year-by-year signals from 1940 to today.Climate stripes
Annual mean shifted from 1940–1949 to 2016–2025 by +1.4°C.
Each vertical stripe is one year. Color encodes how much that year's annual mean differed from the long-term average. Average = each year's annual mean compared to the average of all years (1940–2026). cooler ← → warmer
Annual mean temperature
Long-term trend: +0.17°C per decade.
One point per year — the temperature averaged across the whole year. The dashed line is the least-squares long-term trend. Based on ERA5 reanalysis — modelled estimates, not station readings.
Seasonal warming
Sep–Nov is warming fastest: +0.19°C per decade.
Each faint line is one three-month period's average per year; the bold dashed line is its long-term trend. Different parts of the year often warm at different rates. Based on ERA5 reanalysis — modelled estimates, not station readings.
Hot days vs frost days
Days ≥ 30°C per year: 29.4 early in the record → 143.7 recently. Frost days: 0 → 0.
Thin lines are raw yearly counts; thick lines are the smoothed trend that removes year-to-year noise. The hot-day threshold is auto-picked per city so the line actually moves. Average = a centered 5-year rolling average to smooth weather noise.
Yearly hot & cold extremes
All-time high in 1944, all-time low in 1957: 33.6°C / 19.0°C.
One point per year — the single hottest and coldest day recorded that year.
Annual rainfall
~1864 mm/year on average. Last decade ran −9% vs that average. Long-term trend: −31 mm per decade.
One bar per year of total rainfall. Dashed line is the long-term average. Average = the average annual rainfall across every year of record (1940–2026).
Day-by-day grid
Each tiny square is one calendar day across the full record — ~30,000 days per city. Use the mode switch above the chart: Anomaly colors each day by how far it ran from the historical average for that date (red = warmer, blue = cooler), Daily mean temp shows the absolute mean temperature for the day (useful to see seasons and heatwaves), and Precipitation shows daily rainfall (useful to spot wet/dry seasons and droughts). Average = the long-term average for that calendar date (1940–2026).