Benin - Climate

South of Savalou, especially in the west, the climate is typically equatorial—hot and humid, with a long dry season from December to March, in which the dry harmattan blows in a northeasterly to southwesterly direction. Temperatures range between 22° C (72° F ) and 35° C (95° F ), with the average 27° C (81° F ). The great rains fall from March to July; there is a short dry season from July to September and a short wet season from mid-September to mid-November. In the southwest, average rainfall is considerably lower and the dry season longer: at Grand Popo, for example, average rainfall is about 82 cm (32 in) as compared with about 127 cm (50 in) in Porto-Novo and Cotonou. Northern Benin has only one wet season (May to September, with most rain in August) and a hot dry season in which the harmattan blows for three or four months. Temperatures range from a maximum of 40° C (104° F ) in January to a minimum of 13° C (56° F ) in June. Although rainfall, which is highest in central Benin (135 cm/53 in), decreases as one moves northward, it remains high (97 cm/38 in) in most of northern Benin.