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The climate of Libya
Because the country is situated between the Sahara and the Mediterranean its climate is affected by both. The larger part of Libya has a desert climate with hot, very dry summers and warm winters in which there is practically no precipitation. The Libyan desert is considered one of the driest areas in the world. The coastal areas have a Mediterranean climate with hot and dry summers and mild winters in which there is some precipitation. Thus the seawater makes it get and feel less hot along the coast compared to the inlands and in the winter months it brings along some precipitation. The rain that does fall particularly occurs in the period of October up to April. That is why in the months of February/March you see the desert vegetation gratefully bloom thanks to the 200 to 300 millimeters of rain that falls during the wetter winter period.

Climate information of places and areas in Libya
The climate information on this page is only brief. Specific information about weather and climate can be found on the climate pages per area or town. As for Libya the following climate information is available:

Heat
In Libya it can get extremely hot. During the daytime the temperatures reach well above 30 degrees and sometimes rise to not less than an unpleasant 50 degrees centigrade.

Fall in temperature
In the desert the temperature can drop considerably. Therefore it is important to bring along a warm sweater or a vest for the night. Also protective clothes against sand-storms is a must if you go into the desert.

Sea-water
The sea-water along the coasts of Libya is rather cool in the winter months (some 16-17 degrees). By August/September this temperature rises to a very agreeable value of about 26 to 27 degrees. It is not until the course of December that the temperature of the sea-water drops again below 20 degrees. That is comparable to sea-water temperatures along the Dutch coast in July.

Winter sun
The winters are mild with day-temperatures along the coast of 17 to 25 degrees. Rather pleasant conditions for a winter sun holiday. Because it seldom rains for a longer period of time and the sun shines rather abundantly throughout the year Libya is potentially rather suitable for a winter sun destination.

TitleHot wind: ghibli
Ghibli (also called gibli, chibli, gebli, kibli or gibleh) is the local name for a sirocco. This firm wind blowing from the south or south-west mostly brings along much dust, which makes traveling very difficult when this wind blows. During the predictable ghibli the temperature often rises till 40 to 50 degrees and the relative air humidity drops from 75-80 percent to 10 to 20 percent.
The ghibli is caused by a depression over the Mediterranean that has a suction effect and causes this ghibli. That is the reason why this phenomenon, which practically paralyses daily life in Libya, can be predicted very well.
Also in Egypt you have to deal with a similar phenomenon, there it is called the khamsin.
The desert winds mostly occur in the spring and the autumn and normally last about one to four or five days.

Climate figures
Throughout Libya several climate figures and temperatures can be recorded. The figures below are for the capital Tripoli and cannot be seen as an average for the country. For climate figures for other places and regions in Libya please, visit the individual climate pages.

	average  maximum temperature (°C)	average minimum temperature (°C)	average hours of sunshine per day	average days with precipitation per month	average mm precipitation per month	average sea temperature (°C)
January	17	8	7	8		17
February	19	8	7	5		16
March	21	10	8	4		16
April	25	13	9	2		17
May	30	17	10	1		19
June	34	21	11	0		22
July	35	23	12	0		25
August	35	23	11	0		27
September	33	21	9	1		26
October	29	18	8	3		24
November	24	13	7	6		22
December	19	9	6	8		19
= 0-5 mm ● = 6-30 mm ● = 31-60 mm ● = 61-100 mm ● = 101-200 mm ● = over 200 mm = 0-2 inches ● = 2-12 inches ● = 12-24 inches ● = 25-40 inches ● = 41-80 inches ● = over 80 inches

More climate information
Climate tables are useful but they don’t give an overall picture of the climate and possible weather conditions during a period of time. How high the chances are of hot or cold weather or hurricanes can often not be found in these tables. This is why we offer extra climate information per month. The figures below are for the capital Tripoli. For climate figures for other places and regions in Libya please, visit the individual climate pages.

	chance of (very) hot weather	chance of (very) cool weather	chance of long-term precipitation	chance of hurricanes (cyclones)	chance of sunny days	UV-index
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
click here for the explanation of the symbols

Disclaimer
The information at this site was carefully composed from climate data collected by meteorological services, meteorological offices, climate experts and other sources. “More climate info” is based on statistics, climate data and personal experience. No rights can be derived from this site. Weather has no memory and gives no guaranties. Nothing is as changeable and unpredictable as the weather. The authors of this site feel in no way responsible for any damages caused by misinterpretation or other circumstances that may influence your holiday or trip to a certain destination. We provide information, it’s up to the reader to use it to it’s benefit.