Libya Weather, climate and geography

Summers are very hot and dry; winters are mild with cooler evenings. The desert has hot days and cold nights. Spring and autumn are ideal times to visit, when the warm air comes up from the Sahara and meets a cooling breeze from the Mediterranean.

Libya is a huge country and weather patterns vary by region. The Mediterranean coastline is the focus of most travellers' trips to Libya. There, summers are hot and dry and winters are mild, although the evenings can be worthy of scarves and hats.You'll find similar, though slightly warmer conditions to those on the other side of the ocean, such as southern Italy and Greece. Libya's coastline can be very windy, so be sure to pack a headscarf (women should of course bring one anyway as this is a deeply conservative Muslim country) to protect your ears from being blasted by the breeze.

Rainfall is sporadic and rarely heavy, but drizzly days in autumn and winter are fairly common. Temperatures in Tripoli in January range from 7 to 17°C; in July, you can expect bright sunshine, blue skies and a mercury reading of between 20 and 25°C. In the winter of 2011/12, Libya's coastline had its first snowfall in decades. The desert has hot days and cold nights; the closer to the equator you travel, the hotter the days will be. With the exception of the far southern desert close to Libya's borders with Chad, southern Egypt and Sudan, humidity is generally low.