It is characterized by a continental climate with large temperature differences between winter and summer and day and night. The hottest part of the Negev is the southern part of the Dead Sea depression with an average annual temperature of 25 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Celsius in January and 34 degrees Celsius in August). The least hot part of the region is the highlands of the central Negev, with an average annual temperature of 17 degrees Celsius.
The Negev is a dry desert - with rainfall from 25 to 200 millimeters per year, air humidity that drops to 10 percent during hamasin (dry, hot local wind), and temperatures up to 45 degrees Celsius.
