“The Harmattan is a season in West Africa that occurs between the end of November and the middle of March. It is characterized by the dry and dusty northeasterly trade wind, of the same name, which blows from the Sahara over West Africa into the Gulf of Guinea. The temperature is cold in most places, but can also be hot in certain places, depending on local circumstances.” /Encyclopædia Britannica; Geographical Review (1919): “Knox writes of this wind: The Harmattan is experienced as a wind which blows, especially in the months of December, January, and February, from the NE. and is a hot wind in some localities and a cold wind in others, according to circumstances.”/.
Just a harmattan brought a big surprise to Lagos, Nigerian capital city only before a few days – on 27. January 2022, when dry air from northeast caused thanks to extremely low humidity untraditionally high maximum temperatures.
The maximum temperature in the city reached +38,0°C – the higher temperature was measured in Lagos only in months November, January, and April /https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagos/.
If this temperature appeared a few days later, it would be a new monthly record for February.
January is in Lagos the driest month of the year, with only 1,5 days with precipitation above 1 mm.
The harmattan is often bringing very low visibility and haze, which should be very bad conditions for asthmatics and people with respiratory diseases, such as overall weather comfort.
Just during a drought season, absolute minimum and absolute maximum temperatures are both in the region measured.
Season of rains from April/May to October is bringing higher minimum, lower maximum temperatures, and heavy rainfall with monthly average MAX 315,5 mm in June.
ITCZ is in winter season shifted southward, above south-central Africa and soon, it will be shifting back above more northern parts, up to the Sahel, with every-year floods.
The western part of the northern half of Africa is currently very hot /https://mkweather.com/tenerife-hit-floods-from-32-mm-rainfall-in-a-few-hours-agadir-morocco-already-317c//, while the southern part is experiencing severe tropical storms and cyclones /https://mkweather.com/south-africa-after-a-peak-of-summer-459c-malawi-mozambique-madagascar-zambia-and-uganda-after-floods-tropical-storm-ana-106-dead-the-next-cyclone-bitsarai-is-coming//.
Spring/Autumn 2022 forecast for Africa is available here: https://mkweather.com/spring-and-autumn-2022-forecast-for-africa-mostly-stormy-and-hot-south-colder/.
Illustration picture: The Informant247 Twitter
Source: https://skybrary.aero/sites/default/files/Harmattan.png
