Weather locations in Togo

Togo is a narrow strip of West Africa running from the Gulf of Guinea north to the border with Burkina Faso, with a coast that is hot and humid and a northern savanna that is hot and dry. The whole country lies in the tropics, but rainfall comes in a strongly seasonal pattern.

Main climate types

Classified as tropical savanna, its rainy season runs from about May or June to October, driven by the south-west monsoon, while the dry season from November to April brings the dry, dusty harmattan wind from the Sahara. A secondary rainy peak occurs in June and a secondary dry spell in January. The coast is the most humid and the least variable, while the north has hotter days and cooler nights.

Temperatures

Lome, on the coast, averages about 27 degrees in January and 26 in July, with daytime highs usually in the low 30s and nights in the mid-20s. Further north, Dapaong and Mango average about 28 degrees in January, with highs above 38 in the hot season around March and April and nights that can drop below 15. Northern Togo is the hottest part of the country.

Rainfall

Annual totals are around 800 millimetres in the far north and 1,000 to 1,300 in the south around Lome and Kpalime, with the heaviest rain in June and July and a second peak in September. The dry months are December through February, when low humidity, heavy dust and cooler nights are the norm. On the coastal strip rain of about 800 millimetres may fall, and weeks can pass with none at all.

When to go

The dry season, from December to February, is when the country is most comfortable and the beaches around Lome and Agbodrafo are usable, though the harmattan haze can be heavy in February. The rainy season is good for the waterfalls and for the countryside, particularly around Kpalime, and the wettest weeks of June and September are wet but rarely last for long.