The Sahel is a tropical hot steppe and certainly represents the best example of a semi-arid area. The Sahel has a tropical, hot steppe climate .The climate is typically hot, sunny, dry and somewhat windy all year long. The Sahel has in fact the same climate as the Sahara desert, located just at the north but less extreme.
The Sahel mainly receives a low to a very low precipitation amount annually. The steppe has a very long, prevailing dry season and a short rainy season. The precipitation is also extremely irregular, and vary a lot from season to season and the major part of the rain can fall in only one, or two months while the others may remain absolutely dry.