Cote d'Ivoire

The West African state of Côte d’Ivoire has an area of 322,465 square kilometers, with a coastline of 540 kilometers along the Gulf of Guinea. It shares borders with Liberia in the southwest, Guinea in the northwest, Mali and Burkina Faso in the north, and Ghana in the east. The southern part of Côte d’Ivoire borders the Atlantic Ocean. In the western part of the coastal areas, there are only two seasons—wet and dry. Moving inland toward the east, a short dry season occurs during the middle of the wet season, creating an annual cycle of four seasons. The entire country enjoys a humid climate, with at least seven rainy months and not less than 1,000 millimeters of annual rainfall. Most of the interior has an annual rainfall of between 1,000 and 1,500 millimeters. Temperatures are remarkably constant throughout the year, with the mean temperatures of the warmest and coldest months very close: 27°C and 24°C for Bouaké and Tabou, 28°C and 25°C for Abidjan, and 29°C and 26°C for Ferkessédougou. In the capital city, Abidjan, the mean annual air temperature is 26.2°C; March is the warmest month there, and August is the coolest month.