Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Tanzania's climate and weather

Tanzania sits fairly close to the equator, so there are not huge differences in temperature that you will find in other areas of the globe. Yet another reason that the temperature doesn't change much is that part of Tanzania sits on the coast. Generally, there is less temperature range in maritime (coastal) climates (Allen, 2012). Of course, that also means that as you go further onto the continent, like where Ngorongoro crater is located, temperatures will change a little bit more. Even still, the temperature change is hardly drastic.

http://www.mydestination.com/tanzania/6168623/tanzania-weather-forecast

As you can see by the chart above, the average temperature of Tanzania hardly changes with even the biggest changes in temperature being just five degrees Celsius. The coldest month is July and the warmest month is November.

Another influence on Tanzania's weather is the warm current that the Indian Ocean has against the coast of Africa.


Tanzania is located right by the word "Southwest" in the map above. The warm current of the Indian Ocean also helps to create the little amount of temperature change found in Tanzania, and most of East Africa.



The map above shows the varying climates of the entire continent of Africa. This map shows that most of Tanzania's climate is that of the Savanna climate, along with a Steppe climate in the northern part of the country. Although some of the area is mountainous, particularly in the Western side of Tanzania, the mountains are not big enough, and the area is not large enough to call the climate anything but Savanna and Steppe, except the highest point in all of Africa: Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Tanzania has two wet seasons and two dry seasons. With one of the wet seasons lasting from mid March through May and the other wet season lasting from November through January(http://www.southtravels.com/africa/tanzania/weather.html).