Climatology
This page presents Kuwait's climate context for the current climatology, 1991-2020, derived from observed, historical data. Information should be used to build a strong understanding of current climate conditions in order to appreciate future climate scenarios and projected change. You can visualize data for the current climatology through spatial variation, the seasonal cycle, or as a time series. Analysis is available for both annual and seasonal data. Data presentation defaults to national-scale aggregation, however sub-national data aggregations can be accessed by clicking within a country, on a sub-national unit. Other historical climatologies can be selected from the Time Period dropdown list. Data for specific coordinates can be downloaded for in the Data Download page.
Observed, historical data is produced by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of University of East Anglia. Data is presented at a 0.5º x 0.5º (50km x 50km) resolution.
Kuwait has a hyper arid desert climate that is highly variable with recurrent extremes. The climate is marked by four distinct seasons, with long, hot and dry summers and short winters. Maximum daily temperatures can reach 45°C during summer in which there is no rainfall. Rainfall is concentrated in the winter and spring months. Rainfall totals are highly variable from year to year, and drought is a recurrent phenomenon. The average annual rainfall is typically approximately 112 millimeters (mm) per year and varies from 75 to 150 mm/yr. The annual recorded rainfall levels at Kuwait International Airport have been as low as 34.4 mm and as high as 218 mm, while a level of 319.5 mm was recorded in Umm Al-Maradim Island in October 2013.