About Chad

Sara and John say...

From arid desert to green savannah, the varied climate of Chad depends largely on distance from the equator.

Although ‘hot’ is a year-round description of the temperature, the most comfortable time for visiting this country is winter, when it is dry and sunny virtually nationwide, and temperatures are more bearable than in the summer months.

The vast and largely uninhabited north sits within the Sahara Desert. Rainfall is restricted to a few rare showers, mostly between June and August. Then the rest of the year is dry.

Daytime temperatures reach the high 20s Celsius in winter, compared with the scorching 40s through summer. The desert wind, or ‘Harmattan’ can reduce visibility markedly, especially in the winter months.

Further south across Chad, the wet season is progressively longer, in response to higher humidities. The rains are heavier too. In the capital, N'Djamena, they set in around May, not relenting until early October. Due to more cloud-cover, especially in summer, temperatures do not reach the scorching highs found in the desert further north. However, the 30-degree year-round temperatures are accompanied by higher humidity, with the nights particularly sticky through the wetter summer months.

Across the wettest southernmost areas, only the months of December to February are guaranteed to be dry.

Despite, more cloud in the south, sunscreen is a ‘must’, whatever the time of year in Chad.