Climate and Weather

Northern Mali is arid, a true desert, and a part of the Sahara. Southern Mali is wetter, and there is a lot more vegetation than northern Mali where little is found. The short grasses and shrubs that mark the Sahel give way to the tall grasses of the savannah further south. In Mali, winters are dry and summers are rainy. Rainfall is spotty, though, as in it’s heavy in one area, yet light only a few miles away. During the dry winter season, days are mainly in the mid-70s F. But at night, it gets extremely cold. The lack of clouds allows the heat that has built up during the day to escape from the earth's surface. During the April to June dry season, daytime temperatures become much hotter, sometimes more than 90° F. These times are followed by the wet season, when daytime temperatures become slightly cooler, around the mid-80s F.