Climate of Africa

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

subtropical and temperate climates (green and yellow), and more desert or semi-arid regions, centered on Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa.[1]
A map of Africa showing the ecological break around the Sahara Desert

The climate of Africa is a range of climates such as the

subtropical ridge
with subsiding, hot, dry air masses. Africa holds many heat-related records: the continent has the hottest extended region year-round, the areas with the hottest summer climate, the highest sunshine duration, and more.

Owing to Africa's position across equatorial and subtropical latitudes in both the northern and southern hemisphere, several different climate types can be found within it. The continent mainly lies within the

intertropical zone between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, hence its interesting density of humidity. Precipitation intensity is always high, and it is a hot continent. Warm and hot climates prevail all over Africa, but mostly the northern part is marked by aridity and high temperatures. Only the northernmost and the southernmost fringes of the continent have a Mediterranean climate
. The equator runs through the middle of Africa, as do the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, making Africa the most tropical continent.

Temperatures

Monthly mean and minimum outdoor and indoor temperatures throughout Africa

Globally, heating of the earth near the equator leads to large amounts of upward motion and convection along the monsoon trough or Intertropical Convergence Zone. The divergence over the near-equatorial trough leads to air rising and moving away from the equator aloft. As it moves towards the Mid-Latitudes, the air cools and sinks, which leads to subsidence near the 30th parallel of both hemispheres. This circulation is known as the Hadley cell and leads to the formation of the subtropical ridge.[2] Many of the world's deserts are caused by these climatological high-pressure areas,[3] including the Sahara Desert.

Temperatures are hottest within the Sahara regions of

'Aziziya, Libya, on 13 September 1922. This was later proven to be false, being derived from an inaccurate reading of a thermometer. The world's hottest place is in fact Death Valley, in California.[6][7][8] Apparent temperatures, combining the effect of the temperature and humidity, along the Red Sea coast of Eritrea and Gulf of Aden coast of Somalia range between 57 °C (135 °F) and 63 °C (145 °F) during the afternoon hours.[4] The lowest temperature measured within Africa was −24 °C (−11 °F) at Ifrane, Morocco, on 11 February 1935.[9] Nevertheless, the major part of Africa experiences extreme heat
during much of the year, especially the deserts, semi-deserts, steppes and savannas. The African deserts are arguably the hottest places on Earth, especially the Sahara Desert and the Danakil Desert, located in the Horn of Africa.

Wind

The mid-level African easterly jet stream north of the equator is considered to play a crucial role in the West African monsoon,[10] and helps form the tropical waves which march across the tropical Atlantic and the eastern part of the Pacific during the warm season.[11] The jet exhibits both barotropic and baroclinic instability, which produces synoptic-scale, westward-propagating disturbances in the jet known as African easterly waves, or tropical waves. A small number of mesoscale storm systems embedded in these waves develop into tropical cyclones after they move from west Africa into the tropical Atlantic, mainly during August and September. When the jet lies south of normal during the peak months of the Atlantic hurricane season, tropical cyclone formation is suppressed.[12]

Low-level jets are fast winds which form close to the surface (within 1.5 km). They affect a number of climate processes across Africa. The Somali Low-level Jet,[13] which forms of the coast of East Africa, contributes to the existence of the Somali Desert.[14][15] Low-level jets of the Sahara are known to be important for raising dust off the dry desert surface. For example, the low-level jet over Chad,[16] is the driver of dust emission from the Bodélé Depression, the largest source of atmospheric dust on the planet.[17] Easterly low-level jets which form in river valleys across the East African Rift System supply millions of tonnes of water vapour originating from the Indian Ocean across East Africa and to the Congo rainforest.[18] In doing so, they leave East Africa unusually dry for its latitude.[19] Low-level southwesterlies emanating from the Gulf of Guinea are the key moisture source for the West African monsoon in northern hemisphere summer.[20]

The Tropical Easterly Jet, which forms high up in the atmosphere, 15-17 km above the surface, is another important factor. Variations to the speed and position of this jet stream can affect rainfall in the Congo Basin and the Sahel.[21]

Precipitation

Mean precipitation map

Great parts of North Africa and Southern Africa as well as the whole

El Nino results in drier-than-normal conditions in Southern Africa from December to February, and wetter-than-normal conditions in equatorial East Africa over the same period.[29]

In Madagascar, trade winds bring moisture up the eastern slopes of the island, which is deposited as rainfall, and bring drier downsloped winds to areas south and west, leaving the western sections of the island in a rain shadow. This leads to significantly more rainfall over northeast sections of Madagascar than its southwestern portions.[30] Southern Africa receives most of its rainfall from summer convective storms, tropical lows, mesoscale convective systems. Extratropical cyclones moving through the Westerlies, can also bring significant winter rainfall. Once a decade, tropical cyclones lead to excessive rainfall across the region.[31]

Snow and glaciers

Snow in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco

Snow is an almost annual occurrence on some of the mountains of South Africa, including those of the

Mountain Club of South Africa (MCSA) and the Mountain and Ski Club (MSC)[33] of the University of Cape Town
both have equipped ski huts in the Hex River mountains. Skiing including snowboarding in the Cape is a hit-and-miss affair, both in terms of timing of snowfalls, and whether there is sufficient snow to cover the rocks.

Table Mountain gets a light dusting of snow on the Front Table and also at Devil's Peak every few years. Snowfalls on Table Mountain took place on 20 September 2013;[34] 30 August 2013;[35] 5 August 2011;[36] and on 15 June 2010.[37]

Snow is a rare occurrence in Johannesburg; it fell in May 1956, August 1962, June 1964, September 1981, August 2006, and on 27 June 2007,[38] accumulating up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in the southern suburbs.

Additionally, snow regularly falls in the

Mediterranean regions and Sinai peninsula of Egypt. Snowfall is also a regular occurrence at Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro
in Tanzania.

There have been permanent glaciers on the Rwenzori Mountains, on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, by the 2010s, the glaciers were in retreat, and they are under threat of disappearing through rising temperatures.[39]

Climate change

Graph showing temperature change in Africa between 1901 and 2021, with red colour being warmer and blue being colder than average (the average temperature during 1971–2000 is taken as the reference point for these changes).

agricultural production, food security and water security.[45] As a result, there will be negative consequences on people's lives and sustainable development in Africa.[41]

Over the coming decades, warming from climate change is expected across almost all the Earth's surface, and global mean rainfall will increase.[46] Currently, Africa is warming faster than the rest of the world on average. Large portions of the continent may become uninhabitable as a result of the rapid effects of climate change, which would have disastrous effects on human health, food security, and poverty.[47][48][49] Regional effects on rainfall in the tropics are expected to be much more spatially variable. The direction of change at any one location is often less certain.

Observed surface temperatures have generally increased by about 1 °C in Africa since the late 19th century to the early 21st century.[50] In the Sahel, the increase has been as much as 3 °C for the minimum temperature at the end of the dry season.[50] Data for temperature and rainfall shows discrepancies from the norm, both in timing and location.[51][41][52]

For instance,

climate hazards include droughts and floods as rainfall will likely become more intense and less predictable. Climate models predict that temperatures will rise by 0.5 to 2 °C.[53] In the informal urban settlements of Nairobi the urban heat island effect adds to the problem as it creates even warmer ambient temperatures. This is due to home construction materials, lack of ventilation, sparse green space, and poor access to electrical power and other services.[54]

The
African Union has put forward 47 goals and corresponding actions in a 2014 draft report to combat and mitigate climate change in Africa.[55] The International Monetary Fund suggested in 2021 that $50 billion might be necessary to cover the costs climate change adaptation in Africa.[56][57][58]

In chapter 9 of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, it is reported that although greenhouse gas emissions are among the lowest in Africa, anthropogenic climate change has severely threatened daily life. People experience extreme food insecurity, high mortality rates, major biodiversity loss, and more as a result of global warming. Additionally, because of reduced economic activity and growth and inequities in funding, the ability for adaptation to these conditions is also reduced.[59]

Severe weather

Satellite image of Cyclone Kenneth in 2019 striking Mozambique

Tornadoes

Tornadoes can occur regularly in South Africa along the eastern coast with the Indian Ocean.[60]

Tropical cyclones

Powerful

USD).[65][66] Roughly one month later, Cyclone Kenneth struck northern Mozambique as the country's strongest ever landfall.[67] In 2020, Cyclone Freddy struck Mozambique in two different locations, producing widespread rainfall that killed 1,434 people along its path, mostly in Malawi.[68][69]

Occasionally,

See also

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External links