does middle part of Africa receives rainfall every day due to Equator? how?
Answers
AFRICA
Climate of Africa
Factors influencing the African climate
A number of factors influence the climate of the African continent. First, most of the continent—which extends from 35° S to about 37° N latitude—lies within the tropics. Second, the near bisection of the continent by the Equator results in a largely symmetrical arrangement of . Finally, the high mountains have climatic zones of their own that vary with altitude.
While these factors help to account for the broad climatic patterns of the African continent, there are nevertheless numerous local variations to be found from place to place within the same climatic zone. Urban areas, for example, have climates that often differ in many respects from those of the surrounding countryside. Typically experiencing higher average temperatures, urban areas also frequently have less wind and lower relative humidity; there is too little relevant data from Africa, however, to permit a detailed study of urban climates.
The most important differentiating climatic element is rainfall; this, together with several other climatic elements, depends upon the characteristics of the dominating air mass. The air masses of relevance to the African climate may be broadly classified as maritime tropical, maritime equatorial, continental tropical, maritime polar, and continental polar. Of these, the least important are the continental polar air masses, which may occasionally bring intense cold to northern Egypt in December and January, and the maritime polar air masses, which are associated with rain-bearing depressions over the northern and southern extremities of the continent during the winter. With the exception of these, the continent is affected both by a continental tropical air mass to the north and by maritime tropical and maritime equatorial air masses to the south.
ial air mass is unstable and brings rain while the maritime tropical air mass, when fully developed, is stable and does not normally b
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Marked variations in the rhythm of equatorial climate sometimes occur. For example, the rainfall may be monsoonal and the second rainy season may be all but nonexistent. But the most notable anomaly can be observed on the western African coast from around Cape Three Points, Ghana, eastward to Benin, where, although the bimodal rainfall regime prevails, the total annual precipitation is less than 40 inches (1,000 millimetres). Among the many explanations that have been suggested are that the presence of a cold body of water offshore chills the lower layers of the maritime air mass and makes it stable, that the body of cold air that forms offshore diverts the incoming airstreams to the west and east of the anomalously dry area, that there is a strong tendency for the winds to blow parallel to the shore during the rainy seasons, that the absence of highlands deprives the region of orographic (mountain) rainfall, that fluctuations in the offshore moisture-bearing winds occur during the rainy season and reduce rainfall, and that local meteorological peculiarities of thunderstorms contribute to the reduction in rainfall.
In the northern and southern extremities of the continent, there is a dry summer subtropical, or Mediterranean, type of climate. Rain falls only in winter (December–January in North Africa, June–July in Southern Africa), although in some localities it may fall in autumn (September in North Africa, April in Southern Africa). Mean monthly temperatures are lower than in tropical climates, dropping to about 50 °F (10 °C) in winter, while summer (June–July in North Africa, and December–January in Southern Africa) temperatures may sometimes exceed those of tropical climates. Clear blue skies are characteristic.
The humid subtropical marine climate is restricted to the southeast coast of Africa. This region is characterized by rainfall throughout the year, but it is heaviest in summer. In South Africa, south of KwaZulu-Natal, the winter rainfall is more pronounced, and the temperatures are a little lower than in the north. Thus, at Port Elizabeth there are six months when temperatures are below 62 °F (17 °C), while at Durban mean monthly temperatures do not fall below 64 °F (18 °C).
The warm temperate upland climatic region is found on the Highveld of Southern Africa. Its rainfall regime is similar to that of the tropical wet-and-dry climate, but temperatures are greatly modified by the altitude; frost, for example, occasionally occurs in Lesotho. Toward the coast the climate shows maritime characteristics, and there is a tendency toward winter rainfall.
The mountain climatic region includes the high mountain areas of Ethiopia and the lake region of East Africa. In some respects the climate is similar to the warm temperate upland climate, except that temperatures are even lower and snow occurs on the tops of the highest peaks, such as Kilimanjaro
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