During the last 3 decades, large areas of West Africa have experienced reduced rainfall causing considerable economic losses on local to national scales. An analysis of several meteorological variables for the rainy season (MJJAS) during the period of 1979-1996 are presented. In particular, rainfall, outgoing longwave radiation, 200 mb zonal winds and 700 mb zonal winds are analyzed. Rainfall is analyzed from a global gridded dataset that is 2.5 degrees of latitude by 3.75 degrees of longitude and covers the period from 1900 to 1996. The 200 and 700 mb zonal winds are computed from the ECMWF analyses. Finally, we present in greater detail, results from an extreme dry year (1983) and two relatively wet years (1988, 1994) within the period of study.