Gao weather by month & the best time to visit

🇲🇱 Mali · regional city · hot desert climate

The best time to visit Gao is January — its sunniest month (Sunshine Score 100/100), with December close behind. Gao averages about 3,612 hours of sunshine a year. Daytime highs around 30°C / 86°F and roughly 0 mm of rain in January.

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Sun hours / year

3,612

Sunniest month

January

Peak score

100/100

Rain / year

322 mm

Midday UV at peak

11 (extreme)

Population

133k

Elevation

257 m

When is the best time to visit Gao?

For sunshine, the best time to visit Gao is January, then December. The dullest month is May (0/100, 4 mm of rain). The full month-by-month picture is in the table below.

How sunny is Gao?

Gao is one of the sunniest places on Earth: about 3,612 hours of sunshine a year. 100 Sunshine Score points separate January (100) from May (0), so the month you pick matters. Gao is the sunniest of the 5 destinations tracked in Mali. Rain is strongly seasonal here: roughly 87% of the year's 322 mm falls in the three months around August.

Sunshine Score by month

See Gao on the interactive sunshine globe →

Nearby places for sunshine

• Niamey Niger · 387 km · best in Jan · 3,305 h sun/yr
• Ouagadougou Burkina Faso · 463 km · best in Jan · 3,087 h sun/yr
• Tamanrasset Algeria · 927 km · best in Jan · 3,864 h sun/yr
• Bamako Mali · 950 km · best in Dec · 3,087 h sun/yr
• Kano Nigeria · 1,031 km · best in Jan · 3,209 h sun/yr
• Kumasi Ghana · 1,074 km · best in Jan · 1,964 h sun/yr

Nearest destinations

• Timbuktu Mali · 325 km · 3,597 h sun/yr · best in Jan
• Mopti Mali · 478 km · 3,235 h sun/yr · best in Jan
• Bordj Badji Mokhtar Algeria · 579 km · 3,773 h sun/yr · best in Jan
• Sokoto Nigeria · 672 km · 3,060 h sun/yr · best in Jan