.jpg?width=1600)
Lomé month by month
With around 830 mm a year over some 59 rainy days, this tropical capital is far drier than its latitude suggests.
01 A coast drier than it looks
We are on the Gulf of Guinea, six degrees from the equator, and the logical expectation would be rainforest. What there is instead is savanna. Lomé lies within the so-called Dahomey Gap, a corridor some 200 kilometers wide that splits the Guinean forests into two blocks and reaches the coast.
The explanation is geometric. Here the shoreline runs northeast to southwest, almost parallel to the moist westerly winds, which slide past rather than unload. The result is around 830 mm of rain a year over some 59 days, less than half of what a tropical forest would need.
.jpg?width=1200)
02 Two seasons, not one
Rain does not arrive in a single block. The main season runs from April to June and peaks with some 180 mm and fourteen rainy days in June. Then comes a second, shorter and gentler one, between September and October, closing the wet year with around 100 mm in October.
Between the two and after them, the city dries out. From November to February barely 57 mm fall in total, and December and January together add up to fewer than two rainy days. It is an enormous contrast inside a single year.
03 The August break
The local particularity is August. Exactly when other parts of the region are wet, here rainfall drops to about 30 mm and temperatures hit their annual low: highs of 28.9 °C and lows of 23.4 °C.
It is not a bright month: the pause arrives with grey skies and heavy air, and around seven days still register some rain. But little water falls, walking is easier and heat stops being the day’s dominant factor.
Key moments at a glance
Practically rainless, with the steadiest skies of the year.
The least hot month, with little rain though under grey skies.
Still manageable, but humidity and showers keep rising.
Over 300 mm across the two months and difficult streets.
04 Verdict
Go between November and February. It is hot — highs hover around 33 °C — but water disappears from the calendar and the city can be covered without surprises. If you prefer milder temperatures and do not mind overcast skies, August is the smart alternative.
May and June are the months to avoid: they concentrate more than a third of the annual rainfall, strain urban drainage and reduce trips outside the capital to a bet on the forecast.
.jpg?width=1600)
