2020 Annual climate report for Morocco - Maroc Météo
The year 2020 is the warmest year on record in Morocco after 2017 and 2010, with an annual national mean temperature anomaly of +1.4 °C warmer than the average for 1981-2010. Morocco’s climate, in 2020, was marked by unusually warm minimum and maximum annual temperatures and an almost generalized drier-than-average condition across the country.
The year 2020 is the warmest year on record in Morocco after 2017 and 2010, with an annual national mean temperature anomaly of +1.4 °C warmer than the average for 1981-2010. Morocco’s climate, in 2020, was marked by unusually warm minimum and maximum annual temperatures and an almost generalized drier-than-average condition across the country.
Morocco experienced a very dry and mild February and a particularly hot month of July with monthly mean minimum and maximum temperature records broken in several cities. Thus, for monthly mean maximum temperature, Fez set a new record of 23.78 °C in February exceeding the previous record by +2.24 °C and set a new record of 40.4 °C in July exceeding the previous record by +2,15 °C. For monthly mean minimum temperature, Mohammedia set a new record of 22.28 °C in February with a difference from the previous record of +0.34 °C, the greatest among the other cities.
Total annual precipitation in 2020 were below normal across Morocco with less than 50 per cent of average at the north of Marrakech and in Souss-Massa and Anti-Atlas regions and almost total lack of precipitation in the southern provinces. This year is among the 4 driest years since 1981. Over the agricultural season, from September 2019 to August 2020, the precipitation deficit was around -33% impacting the national cereal crop yield which dropped by 39% compared to the 2018-2019 crop year and by 57% compared to an average year since 2008 (Plan Maroc Vert).
Many extreme weather events were recorded in Morocco and some of them caused significant losses of property. Among these events we can cite: summer heat waves, heavy thunderstorms, strong winds with gusts up to 100 km/h, hail on the 6th of June which damaged an area of 900ha of crops in Saiss and the Middle Atlas regions. Morocco also experienced two particular marine situations, on 29th October and 5th December, with dangerous ocean waves having a maximum height up to 10 meters and which caused significant property damages in few regions along the coast.