N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, sits on the Chari River near the shrinking Lake Chad, on the Sahelian plain in the southwest of the country at approximately 12.13°N, 15.06°E. It has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) — with among the most intense sustained heat on earth — and a single brief rainy season.

The hottest period comes before the rains, from March to May, when highs regularly reach 41–43°C under a merciless sun, with bone-dry air. The rainy season then arrives with the monsoon from June to September, bringing violent thunderstorms, higher humidity and some relief; August is the wettest month by far.

The cooler dry season, from November to February, brings warm, sunny days around 33–35°C and pleasantly cool nights near 14–16°C. The Harmattan dominates, a dry, dust-laden wind off the Sahara that hazes the sky for weeks, sharply lowering humidity and visibility across the Sahelian plain.

N'Djamena is dry, receiving only around 500–600 mm of rain a year, almost all of it in the short rainy season from June to September, with a strong August peak, while October to May is effectively rainless. The rains are erratic and drought is a chronic threat. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.

N'Djamena sits beside Lake Chad, which has shrunk by more than ninety percent since the 1960s as rainfall faltered and irrigation drew it down — an environmental collapse that has fuelled conflict and displacement across the Sahel. The city's pre-monsoon heat is among the most extreme sustained heat recorded anywhere.

To follow any single measurement in Ndjamena 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.