How is the climate in Africa?

The African continent is of great dimensions, it covers an extensive territory that belongs to both hemispheres, for this reason we will find an important diversity of climate throughout the region.

To know how is the climate in Africa? Take into account that the variability of the climate in this area responds to the geographical situation, where each region has its own characteristics in terms of temperature, rainfall, humidity and other factors that determine the predominant type of climate.

Overview of the climate in Africa

In North Africa we find an arid desert climate, with temperatures that can become extremely hot and with very low precipitation levels, it could be said that it hardly rains sporadically in some places.

In this area at night a sudden change in temperature is noticed, as it falls to very cold levels, this is the case of the mountain formations and the Sahara desert itself.

While to the south of the continent we find elements typical of the Mediterranean climate, with two marked seasons of annual rain, another drastic change occurs in the countries that belong to the equatorial zone, since they usually have a constantly high temperature and abundant rainfall throughout the year. year.

Climate typology of Africa according to its regions

The most prevalent climate in Africa is tropical, however the characteristics of the climatic aspects change from one place to another within the continent and each territory or nation has its own type of climate.

Warm weather

The countries that are close to the equator, such as: Madagascar, Congo, Nigeria and Cameroon, have an average temperature of 27 degrees throughout the year, but they differ from the rest due to the fact that the precipitation index is high, with abundant rains that keep it over 1500 mm a year.

Tropical wet

This type of climate extends to countries that are in the Equatorial zone, such as: Angola, Tanzania, Zambia, in the Zambezi river basin or Ivory Coast; High temperatures define the climate with extreme and constant heat, but with the difference that the humidity is much higher, which among other factors gives rise to heavy seasonal rains.

The rainfall index exceeds 2000 mm per year, but as a variant we find that there can be dry months in which this indicator reaches only 60 mm.

Desert

It is the predominant climate in the Sahara desert and the Kalahari desert, it presents extreme temperatures of more than 40 degrees during the day to later drop drastically at nights, which are very cold.

The amount of rainfall is almost nil, it has the constant presence of the subtropical pressure of hot and dry air masses throughout the year.

Tempered

Continuing with the southern part of the African continent, there are dry and rainy seasons that alternate with each other, while the conditions of Southern Africa have a temperate climate throughout the region, as observed in countries such as: Madagascar, the nation of Mozambique , Zambia and Botswana.

Temperate Oceanic

It has mild temperatures due to its proximity to the Indian Ocean, it has winter seasons with cold weather and summers are not so hot. As for the rains, they are constant and the winter months have the highest rate of rainfall.

Mediterranean

The countries that mostly present this type of climate are located in North Africa, such as: Algeria, Morocco and Egypt and to the south by the Cape of Good Hope.

Summer is very dry, with high temperatures, mild winters and moderate rains.

Mountain weather

In a small region of the continent there are areas that are more than 5,000 meters above sea level, examples of them are: Tanzania and Kenya, also the area of ​​the Ethiopian massif, the Rift Valley and the Atlas Mountains, where there are a high percentage of humidity.