Dakar month by month — at a glance
Hover each month for the summary. Click to pin it.
01 Three months at zero
Key moments at a glance
0.0 mm and 0.3 rain days, with 288 hours of sun and 25.3 °C.
25 °C highs and 18.2 lows: the mildest month of the year.
165 mm over 12.8 days. One month brings 40 % of the annual rain.
A mean high of 31.5 °C, above July and August, and almost dry.
The distribution is among the most concentrated you will see in a capital: July, August and September account for 360 of the 411 annual millimetres. The other nine months share 51. Put another way, 88 % of the rain falls in a quarter of the year.
02 Why it lacks the Sahel's heat
It sits at the same latitude as the Sahelian interior, yet the year's highest mean maximum is 31.5 degrees.
Dakar sits at fourteen and a half degrees north, in the same band as inland areas that comfortably exceed 40 degrees in spring. Here the mean maximum runs from 25.0 in February to 31.5 in October. The full annual range is six and a half degrees.
The cause is position: a narrow peninsula pushed into the Atlantic, washed by cold water and exposed to the north-east trade winds, which arrive off the sea rather than off the desert. The ocean acts as a thermostat and flattens the whole year, by day and by night.
The effect shows above all in the dry-season minima: 18.2 degrees in February and 18.6 in January and March. For a city at this latitude, sleeping at eighteen degrees in the depth of the dry season is unusual, and it is what makes January and February genuinely comfortable.
03 The hivernage
The wet season has its own name across Senegal: the hivernage. In Dakar it runs July to September and changes everything. August concentrates 165 millimetres over 12.8 days, September 134 over 9.4, and relative humidity climbs to 79 and 81 %, its annual peaks.
It is worth understanding how it rains. These are not whole grey days: they are short, heavy storms, often in the afternoon or at night, with the sun returning afterwards. In fact August keeps 223 hours of sunshine, over seven a day. The problem is not the light, it is standing water and the mugginess of nights at 25.3 degrees.
04 Which month to pick
The good window is very long: December to May, six consecutive months with practically no rain. Within it, the best are January and February, with highs of 26.1 and 25.0 degrees, lows of 18 and humidity in the year's lower range. It is the most comfortable weather the city offers.
March, April and May are the option if you want guaranteed sun: between 285 and 291 hours a month, with zero mean precipitation. Humidity rises a little — from 76 to 79 % — but highs stay below 27 degrees. December has the driest air of the year, at 66 % humidity.
The months to avoid are July, August and September. October and November are in between and carry a catch: they are the hottest of the year, with highs of 31.5 and 30.4 degrees, above the peak of the hivernage. If you go then, expect real heat even with a clear sky.
