Africa’s climate and inland waters

Africa has seven climate zones: one equatorial and two each of subequatorial, tropical and subtropical. The equatorial zone covers part of the Congo Basin and the Gulf of Guinea coast: the temperature is about +26 °C all year, rainfall is heavy and even (up to 10 000 mm in places), and there is one season, summer. Every morning is sunny, clouds build toward noon and a downpour falls in the afternoon. The subequatorial zone surrounds the equatorial zone to the north and south, reaching about 15–20° latitude; there are two clear seasons: a humid summer and a dry winter. The tropical zone occupies most of the Sahara — the hottest and driest climate in the world: in summer the ground surface heats to +70–80 °C and the air to +40–45 °C, and at night it cools to 0 °C; hot simoom and khamsin winds periodically bring sandstorms. There is a tropical zone in the Southern Hemisphere too. The subtropical zone lies in the far north and far south of Africa: tropical air dominates in summer and temperate air in winter; the north-west and south-west have a Mediterranean climate (dry summer, wet winter), and the south-east coast gets rain all year.