Gardening in Nigeria: climate, frost dates and crops by region

None of the 12 cities of Nigeria on this page had frost in 2016–2025, so gardens there follow warmth and rain rather than frost dates. The warmest month averages 40.4 °C by day in Sokoto and 31.8 °C in Lagos.

Climate zones of Nigeria

By the days between the last spring frost and the first autumn frost.

Zone	Cities	Frost-free days	Last spring frost	First autumn frost
No frost in ten years	Sokoto, Kano, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Jos, Abuja, Ilorin, Ibadan, Lagos, Enugu, Benin City, Port Harcourt	—	—	—

How the regions of Nigeria differ

Splitting the cities in two — north (Sokoto, Kano, Maiduguri and 3 more) and south (Ilorin, Ibadan, Lagos and 3 more): the warmest month averages 37.3 °C by day in the north and 35.4 °C in the south; the north gets about 677 mm of rain a year and the south about 1,397 mm.

The gap between the warmest month’s days and the coldest month’s nights is widest in Kano (24.7 °C) and smallest in Lagos (8.1 °C): the smaller it is, the milder both winter and summer. Port Harcourt is the wettest of these cities with 2,448 mm a year, Sokoto the driest with 439 mm.

Which crops suit which part of Nigeria

Cities without a spring frost: months that suit each crop

Months whose average day is not above the highest temperature on the plant card and whose average night is not below its lowest.

City	Tomato	Cucumber	Bell Pepper	Eggplant	Watermelon
Sokoto	none	February and July–December	none	none	February and July–December
Kano	none	June–October	August and December	none	June–October
Maiduguri	none	July–November	none	none	July–November
Kaduna	August	February and May–October	June–September	none	February and May–October
Jos	August	March and May–November	June–October and December, January	none	March and May–November
Abuja	August	April–January	June–October	June, July and September	April–January
Ilorin	none	May–January	July–September	August, September	May–January
Ibadan	none	March–December	June–September	July–September	March–December
Lagos	none	all year	June–October	June–October	all year
Enugu	none	March–January	June–September	July, August	March–January
Benin City	none	all year	June–October	June–September	all year
Port Harcourt	none	all year	May–November	June–October	all year

Cities of Nigeria: weather in numbers

City	Frost-free days	Warmest month, day	Coldest month, night	Rain a year	Driest month	Places to buy
Sokoto	no frost	April, 40.4 °C	January, 17.7 °C	439 mm	January	2
Kano	no frost	April, 38.7 °C	January, 14 °C	568 mm	January	9
Maiduguri	no frost	April, 39.6 °C	January, 15.3 °C	494 mm	January	9
Kaduna	no frost	March, 35.9 °C	January, 16.4 °C	785 mm	January	5
Jos	no frost	April, 35.1 °C	January, 15.3 °C	845 mm	January	21
Abuja	no frost	March, 35.2 °C	August, 20.9 °C	1,006 mm	January	15
Ilorin	no frost	March, 36.6 °C	January, 20 °C	756 mm	December	15
Ibadan	no frost	February, 36 °C	August, 21.6 °C	1,092 mm	December	8
Lagos	no frost	January, 31.8 °C	August, 23.7 °C	1,360 mm	January	15
Enugu	no frost	February, 36.2 °C	January, 22 °C	1,433 mm	December	15
Benin City	no frost	February, 34.7 °C	August, 22.2 °C	2,266 mm	January	15
Port Harcourt	no frost	February, 33.6 °C	August, 23.1 °C	2,448 mm	January	10

ERA5 2016–2025 via Open-Meteo, 25 km grid cell of each city; dates by the Greenly calendar and the plant cards.