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Heat waves are extreme phenomena whose impacts are often dramatic. This work sets out to analyze the characteristics of heat waves based on a census of all the events that affected Senegal’s territory during the period 1984-2020. The methodology is based on three objectives: to detect heat waves at 40 points perfectly distributed throughout the study area, to study the characteristics of heat waves using a spatiotemporal approach, and to analyze the spatial trend in heat waves in Senegal. The results of this study show that the country was affected by 2,378 heat waves, with some particularly hard hit areas showing more than 70 events recorded in our series of observations. An analysis of the duration of the heat waves shows that they varied between 4 and 8 days on average, although peaks of up to 64 consecutive days above the 95th percentile were recorded. Across the country, temperatures ranged from 28° C to 37° C for minimums and from 31° C to 41° C for maximums. The north and east were the worst affected areas. The spatial pattern of heat waves and their characteristics are reflected in a dynamic of spatial aggregation.