Country Guide

Ivory Coast is situated in West Africa with a coastline on the Gulf of Guinea between Liberia on the west and Ghana on the east. It extends between 4° and 10°N.

It shares the same climatic belts and sequence of weather around the year as that described for Nigeria. The coastal region has two rainy seasons, one peaking in May or June, the other in October, but in the north there is a single rainy season starting in May or June.

The climate of the coastal region is represented by the table for Abidjan, which is wetter than Accra in Ghana. Abidjan has a climate very similar to that of Lagos in Nigeria. On the coast the period from December to February is least likely to experience rainy days.

Rainfall becomes progressively less inland and the two separate rainy seasons merge into a single wet season; there is a much longer dry season at the time of low sun.

At this time temperatures are warm to hot with a very low relative humidity and the dust-laden harmattan, wind blows from the northeast. From December to February the harmattan affects the whole country, except a strip along the coast. The coast has southwesterly winds, the dry harmattan reaching right to the coast on only a few days.

Conditions in the north of the country are well represented by the climatic tables for Tamale in Ghana or Kano in Nigeria.