Libreville month by month — at a glance
Hover each month for the summary. Click to pin it.
01 Dry does not mean sunny
Key moments at a glance
5 mm and one rain day, but only 93 hours of sun: the darkest month.
From 246 mm in May to 15 in June. The water vanishes in four weeks.
162 hours of sun, the year's peak, but with 344 mm over 18.8 days.
464 mm over 23.1 rain days: the wettest month of the calendar.
The reason lies in the latitude and in the sea. Libreville sits practically on the equator, less than half a degree north, facing a cold current that in the southern winter chills the air from below and covers it with a low layer of stratus. That layer prevents rain, because it stops the air rising, and at the same time blocks the sun continuously.
The annual totals help place the scale: 2,840.4 millimetres of rain over about 162 days, and only 1,643.5 hours of sunshine. For comparison: more than double the water of many tropical capitals and considerably less sun than most. Libreville is a humid city and, for much of the year, a grey one.
02 Five millimetres in July
The southern winter drought is almost absolute. June leaves 15 millimetres over 1.8 rain days; July, 5 millimetres over a single day; August, 18 over 2.5. That is, three consecutive months that between them do not reach 40 millimetres. In November, one month alone brings 464.
July, the month when it barely rains, is also the least sunny month of the year. Here dry and bright do not go together: they run in opposite directions.
It is also the coolest part of the year, within limits. The mean high drops to 27.8 degrees in July and the low to 21.7, against 31.1 and 23.9 in March. It is not a big difference — three degrees — but with humidity this high and no direct sun, it changes the feel a good deal.
03 The other extreme: November
At the opposite end of the calendar sits the October-to-December block. October brings 419 millimetres over 22.4 days; November, 464 over 23.1; December, 298 over 18. Three months in which it rains three days in four and the total water exceeds 1,180 millimetres: more than falls in a whole year in many European cities.
With one important difference from other tropics: here, in the wet season, there is sun. April reaches 162 hours and March 158, the two peaks of the year, because the rain arrives as short intense downpours that clear afterwards. You get soaked, but you also see the sky.
04 Which month to pick
If what you want is to move around — coast, tracks, parks, boats — the June-to-August block is the good one, and not for the sun but for the ground. At 5 to 18 millimetres a month, tracks are firm, rivers low and outings predictable. August also adds the whale season offshore.
But you have to go knowing what you are buying: overcast skies almost every day, a grey sea and photography without contrast. Anyone travelling for postcard beaches and tropical light will be disappointed by the supposedly good season, and would do better in May, with 155 hours of sun and the rain already easing.
March to May is the most balanced compromise: plenty of water, yes, but in downpours, with the year's highest temperatures — a mean high of 31.1 degrees — and the brightest light of the calendar. And October to December is when to think twice, unless you are coming for something that only happens then.
