North Africa is in the grip of another severe summer heat event, with extreme temperatures, official alerts, and elevated fire risk spanning Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. This is a regional weather pattern, driven by a strong high-pressure system trapping hot air over the whole of North Africa.
Morocco’s General Directorate of Meteorology has issued an orange-level alert for a heat wave. Temperatures are expected to reach 44 C (104 F) to 46 C (115 F) in Oued Ed-Dahab, Assa-Zag, Es-Semara, Tata, Zagora, and Boujdour, with several inland provinces forecast at 40 C (104 F) to 44 C (111 F). Essaouira, usually shielded by its coastal location, is also expected to see unusually hot weather.
Algeria’s episode is more severe. The national meteorological office has kept heat alerts active across numerous northern, high-plateau, and Saharan wilayas, with shade temperatures in some areas expected to hit 49 C (120 F). The alert covers coastal provinces including Béjaïa, Jijel, Skikda, Annaba, and El Tarf, along with Saharan areas such as Biskra, Touggourt, El Oued, and Ouargla.
The heat has arrived with wildfires. Local reporting and fire-service updates describe dozens of active blazes across Annaba, Souk Ahras, Skikda, Bouira, El Tarf, Jijel, Constantine, Béjaïa, Saïda, Mila, Tiaret, Tlemcen, Guelma, Médéa, Oum El Bouaghi, and Tizi Ouzou. Heat and fire risk are now compounding each other across the same wilayas.
Tunisia is caught in the same system. Regional reporting has described temperatures near 50 C (122 F), threatening travel, outdoor activity, and tourism across the country.
Egypt is among the hardest hit, and not only because of the heat itself. Reports from Qalyubia, the Red Sea, Port Said, Sharqia, and Minya describe prolonged blackouts, with residents facing irregular power cuts, damaged appliances, and interruptions to water pumping and business operations. Officials had previously said no scheduled summer load shedding was expected this year; the outages now being reported suggest that plan has not held in practice.
Libya sits inside the same weather pattern, even though recent coverage has focused more on regional heat extremes than on power outages specifically. Weather and climate reporting describes a persistent heat dome and hot Sahara-driven air masses spreading stress across desert, inland, and coastal zones. Libya’s mostly desert geography and long hours of solar exposure leave it particularly exposed.
The broader pattern is structural rather than a single-season spike. The World Meteorological Organization has identified North Africa as the fastest-warming sub-region on the continent, and recent analysis finds that heatwaves are lasting longer and increasingly overlapping with drought, water stress, and strained urban systems.
The consequences now reach well beyond discomfort. Heat is affecting agriculture, public health, water delivery, tourism, fire risk, and electricity supply across the region.
