Lakes of Ounianga

Chad

Eighteen strikingly blue and red lakes survive miraculously in the hyper-arid core of the punishing Sahara Desert.

Warmest month is June at 41°C on average. Coolest is January at 23°C.

Six lead datapoints

MonthAvg highSwingRain days
January23°±5°·
February26°±6°·
March32°±6°·
April37°±5°·
May40°±3°·
June41°±2°·
July40°±2°·
August39°±3°·
September38°±2°·
October34°±5°·
November29°±4°·
December25°±5°·

What to do

  • Photograph the surreal contrast of lush green palm trees against orange sand dunes
  • Float effortlessly in the highly saline waters of Lake Yoan
  • Learn about the ancient salt extraction methods used by local communities

How we know this

Values are the average of the last ten calendar years of daily readings from Visual Crossing, snapped to the destination cluster. Swing is the p10 to p90 range of daily highs, halved for the ± figure. Rain days count any day with at least 1 mm of precipitation.