West African monsoon

West African monsoon, a major wind system that affects West African regions between latitudes 9° and 20° N and is characterized by winds that blow southwesterly during warmer months and northeasterly during cooler months of the year. Although areas just outside of this region also experience wind reversals, the influence of the monsoon declines with increasing distance.

General features

The main characteristics of the West African seasons have been known to the scientific community for more than two centuries. The southwest winter monsoon flows as a shallow humid layer of surface air (less than 2,000 metres [about 6,600 feet]) overlain by the primary northeast trade wind, which blows from the Sahara and the Sahel as a deep stream of dry, often dusty air. As a surface northeasterly, it is generally known as the harmattan, gusty and dry in the extreme, cool at night and scorchingly hot by day. As in a thorough monsoonal development, upper tropospheric anticyclones occur at about 20° N, while the easterly jet stream may occur at about 10° N, much closer to the Equator than they are in the Indian region.

The West African monsoon is the alternation of the southwesterly wind and the harmattan at the surface. Such alternation is normally found between latitudes 9° and 20° N. Northeasterlies occur constantly farther north, but only southwesterlies occur farther south. Except for erratic rains in the high-sun season (June–August), the whole year is more or less dry at 20° N. The drought becomes shorter and less complete farther south. At 12° N it lasts about half the year, and at 8° N it disappears completely. Farther south a different, lighter drought begins to appear in the high-sun months when the monsoonal southwesterly is strongest. This drought results from the arrival of dry surface air issuing from anticyclones formed beyond the Equator in the Southern Hemisphere and is thus similar to the monsoonal drought in Java. Like the “break” of the monsoon in southern India, however, it occurs beyond the Equator.

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Differences from other monsoon systems

The moist southwesterly stream, particularly frequent between 5° and 10° N, can reach much farther north, bringing warm humid nights and moderately hot but still humid days. The harmattan brings cooler nights, but the extreme daily heating causes a thermal range of 10–12 °C (18–22 °F). Even in the daytime, the harmattan may give a sensation of coolness to the human skin as it evaporates moisture from the skin’s surface. The alternation of the two winds is seasonal on the basis of overall frequency, but in fact it varies considerably with the synoptic pressure patterns. The harmattan comes in spells that mostly last from a few days to more than a week.

The advancing fringe of the southwest monsoon is too shallow (under 1,000 metres [3,300 feet]) for many thunderstorms and other disturbances to occur. They usually occur 200–300 km (about 125–185 miles) behind the fringe, where the moist air is deeper (1,000–2,000 metres [3,300–6,600 feet]) but the ground is still hot enough to make it very unstable. The tops of cumulonimbus clouds may reach 12,000 metres (about 39,000 feet), well above freezing level (4,200–4,500 metres [13,800–14,800 feet]). The disturbances usually occur along a given longitude line that is slightly curved and may in fact form one long line squall. They also reach 12,000 metres or more, traveling steadily westward at 37 to 56 km (23 to 35 miles) per hour. This suggests that they originate in the primary trade wind aloft and, as in India, are probably related to the tropical easterly jet stream. The southwest monsoon dominates the weather, and clouds and rain abound. The rain is primarily due to coalescence of droplets, with most of the clouds located below 3,500 metres (11,500 feet). The humidity is very high, and the daily range of temperature remains around 4 °C (7 °F).

If it were not for the change in wind direction when the southeast trades have crossed the Equator, the monsoon system of West Africa could not be distinguished from the weather system, caused by the seasonal shift in the latitude of the intertropical convergence, as experienced over most of Central Africa. There is a rainy season (in this case, the monsoon season), which lasts two to three months at latitude 16° N on the west coast, three to four months at 14° N, six to seven months at 10° N, and eight months at 8° N.

On the south coast, which is at latitude 4° N to 6° N, the southwest monsoon (as the intertropical convergence) may occur at any time, but the results are quite atypical for various reasons. In the low-sun season (December–February), the southwesterly is rare and ineffective, and the weather is cloudy but dry. From April to June, the midday sun is at its highest, and insolation (solar radiation received at Earth’s surface) is most intense. Because the southwest wind occurs most frequently, the consequent building up of clouds leads to the main rainy season. During July and August (the short drought), cloudy conditions prevail, but the air issues direct from anticyclones farther south and is dry, in spite of the fact that its direction of flow does not change. Although cloudiness decreases after the second high-sun season in September and October, there is a period of occasional rains just sufficient to constitute a secondary maximum.

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Toward the north, conditions are more distinctly monsoonal: by latitude 8° N the two wet seasons have merged into one long “wet” with two subdued peaks, which last approximately seven to eight months (March–October). The “dry,” which is controlled by northeast winds, lasts from November to early March. There is one rainfall maximum (in August or September) only a short distance farther north, although the wet season is only a few weeks shorter.