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Weather extremes

How extreme does Timbuktu's weather get?

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days Timbuktu has recorded — the outer limits of what its weather can do, and how far they sit beyond a normal day.

Based on 34 years of daily weather observations (1991–present), from the Tombouctou station 5 km away. Updated through August 2025 — an all-time extreme only changes when a more extreme day actually occurs, so some dates are old. That is normal, not stale data.

The four kinds of extreme

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest single days Timbuktu has recorded — each shown against what a normal day that time of year looks like.

🔥 Hottest day
120°F May 14, 2011

That is about 12°F hotter than a normal May afternoon in Timbuktu (typical high near 108°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 120°F May 14, 2011
2 117°F Jun 13, 1993
3 117°F Jun 8, 1992
❄️ Coldest night
42°F Nov 27, 1998

About 24°F colder than a normal November night in Timbuktu (typical low near 66°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 42°F Nov 27, 1998
2 45°F Jan 13, 2009
3 46°F Feb 8, 1999
🌧️ Most rain in one day
18.58 in Aug 26, 2009

More rain in a single day than Timbuktu usually gets in the whole month of August (typical August total about 3.9 in).

The three most extreme on record

1 18.58 in Aug 26, 2009
2 5.35 in Mar 9, 1994
3 5.31 in Sep 12, 2011

How hot and cold it gets, month by month

The shaded band is the normal range of daily temperatures for each month. The dots show the most extreme it has ever been — so you can see how far beyond a normal day the records really sit.

30°50°70°90°110°130° all-time high 120°F JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
normal range of daily temperatureshottest ever recordedcoldest ever recorded

Timbuktu's record heat sits well above even a hot day for the season — May's 120°F is about 12°F beyond a normal hot afternoon. Its record cold is just as far below a normal winter night — the dots mark how rare each extreme really is.

In plain terms

In a normal year, Timbuktu's warmest days reach the high 100s°F and its coldest nights drop to the high 50s°F. But across the record it has gone as high as 120°F and as low as 42°F. A single day has delivered over 19 inches of rain. Those are the outer edges worth knowing if you are moving here, planning a trip, or thinking about a house.
Methodology & sources

Temperature & precipitation — 1991–2020 normals computed from 17 years of daily observations at Tombouctou, a weather station, about 5 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →