Weather locations in Gabon

Gabon sits almost exactly on the equator on the west coast of Central Africa, and its climate is the extreme version of the equatorial type: hot, very humid and wet in every month. Libreville, the capital, averages about 26 °C in January and roughly 25 °C in July, a range of barely one degree, and receives more than 2,500 millimetres of rain a year. There is no dry season in any meaningful sense.

Main climate types

The whole country falls in the tropical rainforest category. Its rainfall is fed by two systems: the inter-tropical convergence, which sits near the equator for much of the year, and the south-west monsoon, which carries moisture in from the Atlantic during the northern summer, roughly December to March. As a result precipitation is abundant every month, and Gabon is frequently cited among the wettest places on earth.

Temperatures

Gabon has some of the smallest seasonal temperature amplitudes in the world. Monthly means in Libreville stay between about 25 °C and 27 °C, and daily maximum and minimum differ by only about 8 °C to 10 °C. Humidity is almost always above 80 per cent, and warm, saturated air feels oppressively heavy to anyone arriving from a temperate country.

Rainfall

Rainfall is heavy in every month, though not evenly distributed. The wettest months are usually October and November in the south, while January and the months that follow are very wet in the north, and some stations have recorded monthly totals above 500 millimetres. Showers are intense and short, often in the afternoon, and cloud cover is persistent and clearing periods brief.

When to go

There is no clearly bad time, but December to February tends to be less cloudy and slightly drier in the south, which makes coastal and forest visits easier. June and July are often the most saturated and least comfortable for walking. Visitors should expect frequent rain whatever the month, and should build in some indoor options in Libreville.