The year in Draa-Tafilalet, month by month
The figures come from the Errachidia, Ouarzazate and Zagora stations, 1991–2020 series. Errachidia serves as the reference for the centre of the region and Zagora for the far south, which is several degrees hotter. The scoring crosses temperature, wind and flood risk.
When people talk about the climate of southeastern Morocco they almost always talk about the heat, and the heat is real: in July the thermometer goes past forty across much of the region. But the heat does not explain what a day here feels like, nor how to pack.
What explains it is the temperature range, and its behaviour is stranger than it looks.
01 Fourteen degrees between day and night, all year
Take Errachidia, in the centre of the region, and the 1991–2020 series. In January the average maximum is 15.9 degrees and the minimum 2.0: fourteen degrees of difference. In July the average maximum is 39.5 and the minimum 25.8: thirteen point seven.
It is practically the same swing in the coldest month and the hottest. And it holds in the middle months: April gives 26.1 and 13.0 — thirteen point one — and October gives 26.8 and 14.2 — twelve point six.
The cause is dry air. With no humidity or cloud to hold the heat accumulated during the day, the ground radiates it at night and the temperature collapses. That mechanism works the same in January as in August, which is why the swing does not change size.
Fourteen degrees between midday and the small hours, in January as in July: the only thing that moves is the height of the swing.
02 Winter, which here genuinely exists
The idea that the desert is a hot place does not survive January's figures. Errachidia's average minimum is 2.0 degrees and the station's absolute record is −8.1. In Ouarzazate, somewhat further west, the record is −7.0.
That means frost in the palm grove and ice in the puddles as a matter of course, and in the high parts of Midelt province, which reaches up into the Atlas, snow. Anyone booking a night in a desert tent in December usually discovers it in the small hours.
The counterpart is the day. With highs of 15.9 to 20.4 degrees depending on where you are, clear skies and a low sun, winter is an excellent season for walking: there is no hour of the day when it is too hot.
03 July in Zagora: a record of forty-five
At the southern end the figures change category. In Zagora, at the end of the Drâa valley, July's average maximum is 44.9 degrees and August's 43.5. These are not records: they are the average of every day of the month.
And the minima bring no relief either. In July they do not drop below 25.1 in Zagora or 25.8 in Errachidia, which means the whole night passes above twenty-five degrees and the body never recovers.
The practical consequence is that in summer the usable day splits into two short pieces: from dawn to mid-morning and from mid-afternoon to night. In between you do not go out, and that is exactly why the traditional architecture has thick walls, courtyards and covered streets.
04 Sixty-one millimetres a year, and the problem is not the drought
Zagora collects 61 millimetres of rain a year. To put that in perspective: it is less than falls in a single storm day in many places, spread over twelve months.
But the region's climate risk is not lack of water, which is taken for granted and has been managed for centuries. It is the opposite: the flash flood. When a storm dumps on ground with no vegetation and no soil to absorb it, all the water reaches the bed at once.
Those floods concentrate in late summer and early autumn, and affect above all the tracks that cross dry beds. A river that has gone a whole year without a drop can become impassable in twenty minutes and dry out again within hours.
05 The same month changes depending where you are
The region covers 86,142 square kilometres and runs from the heights of Midelt, in the Atlas, to the edge of the erg. That makes speaking of Draa-Tafilalet's climate in the singular a considerable simplification.
In July, the average maximum runs from 39.5 degrees in Errachidia to 44.9 in Zagora: five and a half degrees between two points in the same region. Ouarzazate, to the west and slightly higher, stays at 38.8.
The rule is simple and useful for planning: the further south and lower you go, the hotter the summer and the milder the winter. If the trip falls in June or September, shifting the itinerary north and upward is equivalent to changing month.
06 How to choose the month
The best stretch of the year runs from October to April, and within it four months stand out: October and November on one side, March and April on the other. Highs move between 20.6 and 30.8 degrees depending on where you are, and lows between 7.7 and 15.5.
Among those four there are nuances. October adds the date harvest, when the palm grove is at its busiest. November gives the cleanest light, with less dust in suspension. March is the windiest month. April is the roundest balance.
And there are two warnings that hold across the calendar. First: always bring warm clothing, even in May, because the fourteen-degree swing never rests. Second: if you go between June and September, ask about the state of the tracks before crossing any dry bed.
The year's four stretches
From 18.2 to 26.1 degrees of maximum in Errachidia and 22.4 to 30.7 in Zagora, with lows between 4.6 and 13.6. You can walk at any hour. The price is wind and dust, notable in March.
30.3 degrees in Errachidia and 35.5 in Zagora. The north of the region still works at any hour; the south already forces a midday stop. Nights, with lows of 17.3 and 17.9, remain comfortable.
Average highs of 35.4 to 39.5 degrees in Errachidia and 40.8 to 44.9 in Zagora, with records of 44.7 and 44.0. Lows stay at 22.0 to 27.2: not even the night cools you. It is also the stretch of storms and floods.
From 32.9 degrees in September to 15.9 in January, with lows falling from 19.9 to 2.0. October and November are the best stretch; from December the day is still good but the night demands real winter clothing.
