He Climate of Africa Is determined by rainy and dry places. Africa mainly lies within the intertropical zone between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Only the northern and southern parts of the continent have a Mediterranean climate because they are not located beneath the tropics.
Due to this geographical situation, Africa is a hot continent as well as solar radiation is always high. In addition, dry and hot climates prevail over all of Africa, but to the north of the continent the arid climate and high temperatures are most marked.
Some general data on the African climate
The climate of Africa is within the range of climates such as equatorial, dry and wet tropical climate, tropical rainy climate, semi-arid climate, desert climate and subtropical mountainous climate.
Temperate climates are rare in the continent except for high mountainous elevations and around the peripheries of the continent. In fact, the climate in Africa is more dependent on rains than at temperatures that are consistently high.
The African deserts are the sunniest and driest parts of the continent due to the presence of subtropical pressure with hot and dry air masses.
Africa holds many records related to heat: the continent has the hottest extended region per year, areas with the hottest summer weather and the highest solar duration.
To describe the climatic conditions around the African continent, in specific terms is a little difficult, due to the immense geography of the region, so general terms are used.
Most of Africa is in the tropics and never snows except for mountain peaks in the Great Rift valley. To the north of the continent, half is mostly desert or arid, while the region to the south contains diversity in wildlife and rainfall.
Temperatures
Globally, warming of the earth near the equator leads to extensive upward movements and convection along the Intertropical convergence zone.
The divergence over the depression near the equator causes the air to rise and move far to the top of the equator. As it moves toward the middle latitudes, the air cools and sinks, causing a sinking near the 30th parallel of both hemispheres.
This circulation is known as the Hadley cell, and leads to the formation of subtropical ridges. Much of the world's deserts are caused by areas of high climatological pressure, including the Sahara desert.
Winds
The low East African level is considered to play a crucial role in the rainy areas of southwestern Africa, and helps to form the tropical waves that march through the tropical Atlantic and the eastern Pacific Ocean during the hot summer season.
This exhibits barotropic characteristics and baroclinic instability, which produces a synoptic scale to the west propagating noises in the spectrum, known as Eastern African waves or tropical waves.
A small number of mesoscale storm systems are added to these waves to develop as tropical cyclones after they move from western Africa into the Tropic Atlantic, mainly during August and September.
Precipitation
Vast parts of North Africa and the South, as well as the entire Africa Furnace, have mainly a hot desert climate or a semi-arid hot climate for the wettest locations. The Sahara desert to the north is the warmest, dryest and sunniest desert in the world.
The southern part of the desert, called Sahel, is a semi-arid zone, while the southeastern areas contain savanna plants, and its central portion contains very dense and rainy jungles.
The equatorial region near the intertropical convergence zone is the wettest portion of the continent. Rainfall falls yearly throughout the region heading north into sub-Saharan Africa in the month of August, then rains returns to the south in central and southern Africa in March.
Areas with a savanna climate in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Ghana, Burkina, Faso, Darfur, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Botswana have a distinctive rainy season.
The"El Niño"effect results in a drier zone than normal conditions in southern Africa from December to February, and wetter than normal conditions in East Africa in the same period
Within Madagascar, the wind exchange brings moisture to the areas further to the east of the island, which is deposited as rain, and carries drier winds in the lower areas of the south and west, leaving the areas west of the island. Island under the shadow of the rain.
This carries significantly more precipitation over the sections north of the island than the southwestern portions of Madagascar.
Southern Africa receives more of its rains from the summer convective storms and extratropical cyclones that move from the West. Once a decade, tropical cyclones lead to excessive rainfall around the region.
Snow and Glaciers
Snow is an almost annual occurrence in some of the mountains in southern Africa, including the Cedaberg Mountains, and the surrounding Ceres, Western Cape Province, and the Drakensberg Mountains in Natal and Lesotho.
The"Tiffendell"resort in the Drakensberg mountains is the only commercial place to ski in South Africa, and has an advanced capacity for creating snow, allowing skiing for three months a year.
Mount Kilimanjaro
In Johannesburg snow is a rather rare occurrence. Snowfall in this city has taken place on May 1956, August 1962, June 1964, September 1981, August 2006, and June 2007, accumulating up to 10 centimeters of snow in the southeastern suburbs.
In addition, snow falls regularly in the Atlas Mountains in Maghreb. Snowfall is also a regular occurrence in the mountains of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
There have been permanent glaciers in the Rwenzori mountains, on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, in 2010, glaciers are shrinking, under threat of disappearing due to rising temperatures.
Climate in different countries of the African continent
Storm in Senegal
South Africa
Summers in South Africa are hot and dry. South of the country highlights the rainy season in winter. Hills and mountains are often covered in snow during the winter season.
Angola
Angola is an innkeeper in a tropical highlands where temperatures average around 25 to 28 degrees Celsius in the interior, and 20 to 24 degrees Celsius around the coast.
The coastal winter breezes and keeps the temperature somewhat low. The seasons are dramatically separated in two, dry and wet, with rains falling steadily between November and the end of April.
Madagascar
There may be four seasons in a day on this island. Between January and March, there are heavy rains that cause the asphalt and the roads to be disused.
There is also a high risk of cyclones. Regions in the southwest and west can be very hot in summer, while winter is a fairly comfortable climate.
Malawi
Higher altitude areas are usually warmer, and the shores of Lake Malawi have very high temperatures. During the summer, the average temperature is about 20 degrees Celsius. The rainy season lasts from October to April.
Morocco
Sahara desert
Hot and sunny country most of the year, with central desert areas reaching extremely hot temperatures during the summer. Coastal areas receive cold air from the ocean.
Winters are generally mild and wet. It emphasizes, as we said before, that it is not unusual for the northern areas to drop a lot of snow on the Atlas Mountains. The winters in southern Morocco are drier, but also colder.
Mozambique
Mozambique has a tropical and hot climate. It is best to know it during the dry seasons, which are also usually colder (April, May, October and November). Temperatures range from 20 degrees. The coldest climate is in the interior during this period. The rainy season is hot and humid.
Rwanda
The climate in Rwanda maintains consistent temperatures throughout the year with an average daytime temperature of 24 degrees Celsius, with the exception of the mountains, where the average is 13 degrees Celsius. In the northern zone, rainfall is more frequent and more frequent.
Tanzania
Sunset in Tanzania
Tanzania has an interesting geography, which contributes to its differentiation in the climatic conditions. The islands on the outskirts of Tanzania have a hot and humid climate. The country can be cold in the evenings. The northeast enjoys temperate climates.
References
- Owen E. Thompson (1996). Hadley Circulation Cell. Channel Video Productions. Retrieved on 2007-02-11.
- The Formation of Deserts. Oracle ThinkQuest Education Foundation. Retrieved on 2009-02-16.
- Christopher C. Burt (2004). Extreme Weather: a guide & record book. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. pp. 24-28. ISBN 0-393-32658-6.
- Extracted from worldatlas.com.
- Excerpted from our-africa.org.
- Alex Wynter (2009). Ethiopia: March rainy season"critical"for southern pastoralists.Thomson Reuters Foundation. Retrieved on 2009-02-06.