Guides to Africa’s rainy seasons, dust winds and cyclone season: when they happen, what to expect and live conditions in the cities they affect.
The Harmattan is the dry, dusty north-easterly wind that blows from the Sahara across West Africa during the dry season. It brings hazy skies, very low humidity, cool mornings and hot afternoons.
Nigeria’s rainy season follows the West African monsoon. It starts earliest and lasts longest in the south, arrives later in the north, and brings most of the country’s rain between April and October.
Most of Kenya has two rainy seasons a year: the long rains from March to May and the short rains from October to December, separated by a cool dry season in the middle of the year and a hot dry spell in January and February.
Tropical cyclones form over the warm South-West Indian Ocean during the southern summer. The official season runs from 15 November to 30 April, and the islands and the Mozambique coast are most exposed.
South Africa has two rainfall regimes. Most of the country, including Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban, gets its rain in summer from October to March, while Cape Town and the Western Cape get theirs in winter.
The Khamsin is a hot, dry and dusty wind that blows across Egypt in spring. Its name comes from the Arabic word for fifty, after the roughly fifty days in which it tends to occur.
Lagos is one of the most flood-prone cities in Africa. It is low-lying and coastal, it is growing fast, and heavy tropical downpours can overwhelm its drains within an hour.
Ethiopia’s highlands have three seasons: Kiremt, the main rains from June to September; Bega, the dry season from October to January; and Belg, the smaller rains from February to May in parts of the country.