African Climate

The role of Latitude in climate

•  Tropics: the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn

The Role of Elevation in Climate

•  The coolest regions are found in the highlands

Alternating Wet and Dry Seasons

•  The further away from the equator, the shorter the rainy season.

Seasons are reversed north and south of the equator

Tropical Wet Climate Region

•  Rain forest •  Leaching: rains

dissolve and wash away nutrients from the soil

•  Insects, disease

Steppe Climate

•  Also called semi-arid

•  Transition between tropical wet and tropical dry

Tropical Dry •  Savanna •  Covers half of Africa •  Drought: prolonged

periods of little or no rainfall

•  Desertification: the turning of semidesert land into desert

•  Sahel=Steppe

Desert

•  Sahara: crisscrossed with trade routes

•  Kalahari: not as dry

•  Namib: Watered only by ocean mist

Mediterranean Climate

•  Southern tip and northern coast

•  Mild climate, fertile soils

•  European settlers

Climate and Health

•  Malaria

•  Tsetse fly - sleeping sickness

•  AIDS

Population Patterns

•  Africa is not densely populated

Lifestyles

•  Farming •  Herding •  Fishing •  Hunting and

gathering •  urban

Languages

•  1,000 languages spoken in Africa

•  Niger-Congo family of languages

•  Swahili: Arabic and Bantu