Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, sits on a peninsula on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, backed by steep forested mountains rising directly behind the city at approximately 8.48°N, 13.23°W. It has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am) — hot, humid and among the wettest cities in Africa — with a torrential monsoon season.

The monsoon season, from May to October, brings extraordinary rainfall, as moist southwesterly winds are forced up the mountains behind the city; July and August are drenching, with near-daily downpours. Temperatures ease slightly under the constant cloud, with highs around 28–29°C, but the humidity is relentless and the sun is rarely seen.

The dry season, from December to April, is hotter and sunnier, with highs around 30–31°C, much less rain and slightly lower humidity. The Harmattan, a dry, dusty wind off the Sahara, can reach the coast between December and February, hazing the sky. This brighter, drier stretch is comfortably the best time of year.

Freetown is one of the wettest cities in Africa, receiving on the order of 3,000–3,500 mm of rain a year, overwhelmingly in the monsoon months from June to September; July and August alone can each exceed 800 mm, while January and February are nearly rainless. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.

Freetown's enormous rainfall stems from the steep mountains that rise directly behind the city, lifting the moist Atlantic monsoon air and wringing out several metres of rain each year. Those same slopes, stripped of forest for building, have proved deadly: the 2017 Regent landslide killed over a thousand people after days of torrential rain.

To follow any single measurement in Freetown more closely, use our live instruments: the online barometer for atmospheric pressure, the thermometer for temperature, the hygrometer for humidity, the anemometer for wind speed, the wind vane for wind direction, and the rain gauge for rainfall.