Nouakchott month by month — at a glance
Hover each month for the summary. Click to pin it.
01 Eight days and ninety-five millimetres
Key moments at a glance
31.0 °C by day and humidity at its annual minimum: 35 %.
29.1 °C highs and 14.5 lows, the lowest of the year.
36.1 °C by day, 25.8 by night and 69 % humidity all at once.
282 hours of sun, the year's peak, with 34.3 °C highs.
With those numbers, planning around rain makes no sense. Whatever the month, the chance of a downpour ruining a day is minimal, and in the dry half of the year it is practically nil. It is a liberating calendar, because it wipes out at a stroke the variable that dominates planning almost anywhere else.
The sun goes with that dryness at 2,946.7 hours a year, an average of 8.1 a day, and very evenly spread: the least sunny month is December with 217 hours and the sunniest May with 282. Less than a third of difference between maximum and minimum, against the factor of three or four seen in tropical climates.
02 The sea that cools the Sahara
A capital inside the Sahara whose mean high does not reach 37 degrees in any month. The explanation is in the water, not the air.
The second peculiarity of this climate is thermal. Nouakchott is deep in the desert, but the mean high runs from 29.1 degrees in January to 36.7 in October: it never reaches 37. Inland in the Sahara, at the same latitude, summer means are appreciably higher.
The ocean is responsible. Off this coast runs the cold Canary Current, which lowers the water temperature and with it the temperature of the air coming in off the sea. The effect shows best in July: it is the month with the lowest mean high of the warm half-year, 32.4 degrees, precisely when the interior is at its hottest.
The trade-off shows in the records, which remind you where you are. The absolute maximum in the series is 47.5 degrees, recorded in April and July, and the minimum 3.9 in January. The means are mild for a desert; the extremes are not.
03 The variable that does matter
If rain does not decide and temperature is contained, what is left? Relative humidity, which in this city moves a great deal and is what genuinely separates a pleasant month from a heavy one. The annual mean is 52 %, but it runs from 35 % in December to 72 % in August.
The combination matters more than either figure alone. October has the year's highest mean high, 36.7 degrees, but at 55 % humidity. September drops to 36.1 but rises to 69 %, and adds a mean low of 25.8: it does not cool at night. That is the most uncomfortable month of the calendar, even though it is not the hottest.
There is one more factor that appears in no table and is worth bearing in mind: dust. Haze can whiten the sky for days on end, cut visibility and cover everything in a fine layer of sand. It does not cancel a trip, but it changes the photographs considerably and is a nuisance if your airways are sensitive.
04 Which month to pick
The good window is the northern winter, and it is wide. From November to March the mean high runs from 29.1 to 34.0 degrees, nights sit between 14.5 and 19.7, and humidity stays between 35 % and 43 %. January and December are the two best months: dry air, manageable heat and cool nights.
March still works very well — 33.5 degrees and 43 % humidity, with 260 hours of sun — and is probably the best compromise if you also want long days. April and May are workable: 34.8 and 34.3 degrees, but with humidity already climbing to 49 % and 54 %.
The months to avoid are June to September, and the reason is not rain but the combination of heat and mugginess. August and September have humidity of 72 % and 69 % with mean lows of 25.4 and 25.8: they are the only nights of the year that do not cool down. October is the hinge month and is already considerably easier, with humidity back at 55 %.
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