Eleven of the 22 countries in the Arab region recorded their hottest year on record in 2024, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The countries are Morocco, Algeria, Bahrain, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Yemen, Qatar, Comoros and Sudan.
The finding, drawn from ERA5 data, the fifth-generation global atmospheric reanalysis produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in cooperation with the Copernicus Climate Change Service, appears in the WMO’s new report on the state of the climate in the Arab region for 2024.
The report says all subregions of the Arab world experienced temperatures above the 1991–2020 average last year. The highest anomalies were recorded in North Africa, where temperatures climbed more than 2 degrees Celsius above the 1991–2020 average in northern Algeria, Morocco’s Atlas Mountains and most of Tunisia.
Prepared jointly with the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the League of Arab States, the report aims to provide climate-relevant information for a region highly exposed to climate pressures and home to 15 of the world’s most water-scarce countries.
On rainfall, the report notes that annual precipitation in 2024 exceeded the 1991–2020 average across much of the southern and eastern parts of the region. Totals reached 150% to 200% above normal in northern Sudan and parts of the Arabian Peninsula, including the United Arab Emirates, southwestern coastal Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
But the WMO also observed significant rainfall deficits across most of North Africa, including coastal areas of Morocco, northern Algeria and Libya, where precipitation fell as much as 40% below the 1991–2020 average.
East Egypt, western parts of the Near East and areas of Somalia also recorded below-average rainfall. Northwestern Africa experienced drought for the sixth consecutive year, although late-2024 heavy rains brought partial relief in some areas of Algeria and Tunisia.
The WMO says drought conditions intensified in 2024 across western North Africa after six consecutive poor rainy seasons, especially in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. At the same time, extreme rainfall and flash floods caused deaths and destruction in arid countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE.
The report says the persistent rainfall shortfall in 2024 harmed water resources and agriculture. Reservoir levels dropped to critical lows, including at Morocco’s Al Massira Dam, the country’s second-largest and a major irrigation source for farms near Casablanca, where capacity fell to just 1% to 2% in February 2024.
In the Maghreb, wheat yields fell sharply below average due to the prolonged seasonal drought. In Iraq, nearly half of households in Anbar, Kirkuk, Nineveh and Salah al-Din provinces reduced either the area planted or their irrigation use during the 2024 season because of water shortages.
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