Yamoussoukro month by month — at a glance
Hover each month for the summary. Click to pin it.
01 Four seasons, not two
Key moments at a glance
25 mm over 3 days, 6 hours of sun and the coolest nights, at 18.8 °C.
7.5 hours of sun a day despite the 140 mm falling over 10 days.
165 mm over 15 days: half the month sees rain at some point.
3.5 hours of sun a day, the annual minimum, with only 90 mm of rain.
The pattern is that of almost the whole southern half of Ivory Coast. A long dry season from November to February; a heavy rainy season from March to June, peaking at 165 millimetres; a little dry season in July and August, when the rain halves; and a second surge in September and October, with 160 and 125 millimetres.
Knowing this changes how you read a calendar. Anyone looking only at the millimetre column sees a gap in July and August and reads it as a window. The sunshine figures say otherwise.
02 The August paradox
June: 165 millimetres and 5.5 hours of sun. August: 90 millimetres and 3.5. Half the rain, and considerably less light.
August is the least sunny month of the year: 3.5 hours a day, around 100 in the whole month, against April's 220. And yet it receives 90 millimetres, the lowest figure since March. The rain drops and the cloud rises: they are two different things, and here they part company strikingly.
The practical consequence is that July and August are not good months even if the rain gauge suggests otherwise. August has twelve rain days — more than July, which has eleven with more water — under an almost permanently covered sky and with highs of 30 degrees, the lowest temperature of the year.
03 The heat is in the dry season
The second inversion is thermal. The hottest months are not those of the northern summer but the dry ones: a mean high of 36.2 degrees in February, 35.2 in March and 35 in January. In August, by contrast, the mean high is exactly 30 degrees.
The reason is that same cloud: when the sky closes, radiation does not reach the ground and the maximum collapses. In the dry season the opposite happens, with direct sun from mid-morning. The minima follow the same inverted, gentle pattern: 18 degrees in January and 18.8 in December, the coolest nights, against 22.8 in May.
There is a phenomenon of those dry months: the harmattan, the north-easterly wind that carries Saharan dust. It does not blow with the same force every year, but when it arrives it leaves the air loaded, the horizon whitened and the sun filtered, even with no cloud at all. Worth factoring in if you travel in December or January.
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04 Which month to pick
The best month is November: 50 millimetres over 6 days, 6.5 hours of sun and highs of 32.9 degrees. The September–October surge is over and February's dry heat has not yet arrived. December is the driest alternative — 25 millimetres over 3 days — with the coolest nights of the year.
January works if you handle dry heat well: it is nearly the least rainy month, with 15 millimetres over 2 days and 7 hours of sun, but with 35 degrees at midday and possible dust in the air. February starts just as dry and is the hottest of the year.
The months to avoid are May, June, September and, for the reasons above, July and August. If you travel in March or April you will get rain — 115 and 140 millimetres — but also the year's highest sunshine: 7 and 7.5 hours a day. It is the most reasonable compromise within the wet season.
