Mauritania
Weather locations in Mauritania
Choose a location in Mauritania to view its available forecast products.
Mauritania illustrated weather map
11 mapped locations
Only locations with a verified coordinate are marked. The complete location list is below.
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Climate of Mauritania
Country climate guideMauritania occupies the north-west corner of the African continent, from the Atlantic coast east into the Sahara, and it lies almost entirely north of the tropics. Its climate is desert, with the Atlantic only just reaching in as a cooling influence along the coast. Three zones can be distinguished: a hot, almost rainless interior desert, a warm semi-arid south that gets a short summer rainy season, and a cool, foggy coastal strip where the cold Canary current holds temperatures down and suppresses rain.
Main climate types
The interior belongs to the hot desert group in Köppen terms, and the far north-west borders on a cold desert climate on the coastal shelf. The south, around Koudiry and toward the Senegal border, is a semi-arid steppe with a short, reliable rainy season in midsummer, and the whole country receives far more heat than rain.
Temperatures
The seasonal swing on the coast is small but real. Nouakchott averages about 21 °C to 22 °C in January and about 29 °C in July, and the coast rarely sees rain because the sea keeps the air stable and damp. Inland, which is most of the country, the range is extreme: afternoon highs in July and August commonly pass 40 °C, while clear desert nights in December and January can fall near or below 5 °C.
Rainfall
Rainfall is minimal almost everywhere: typically under 100 mm a year along the coast, and very much less in the far north. The southern zone, from July to September, records the country's most rain, generally 200 mm to 400 mm, which turns the steppe green for a few weeks. In the north, rain is a rarity, and the main weather feature is the harmattan, a dusty wind that blows from the Sahara and reduces visibility for days at a time, especially between December and February.
When to go
Winter and early spring, from November to March, are the only comfortable months, with warm days and cool nights on the coast. The summer heat inland is severe from June to September, and travellers there should expect dust haze rather than rain.