Climate

Somalia generally has an arid to semi-arid climate. The main feature of the climate is the existence of definite wet and dry seasons, and the absence of any large seasonal change in temperature. Rainfall is considered the most important meteorological element affecting life in Somalia. It is the defining characteristic of the climate and has a great spatial and temporal variability. In particular, variation from season to season, and variations within the season are what determine the successes of agricultural activities. The year is subdivided into four seasons as follows:

• Jilaal - December to mid March: warm, sunny, dry.
• Gu – mid March to June: main rainy season.
• Haggai - July to mid September: Cool, rather cloudy (especially July-August), dry. Some stations along the southern coast and North western regions receive significant amounts of rainfall.
• Deyr - mid September to November: secondary rainy season.

To get more details on Climate, download the Climate of Somalia, a technical report produced by SWALIM in 2007 using the most recent consistent available data from the FAO global climate database for the period between 1963 - 1990. While the database lacks information for some stations in some periods, missing data was extrapolated to improve analysis in the Climate of Somalia Report.