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> I have no idea where this "Africa is hot" trope originates More than 25 percent of Africa is desert. Sahara is not the only desert in Africa. Checked the fo
by gspetr 9y ago
> I have no idea where this "Africa is hot" trope originates
More than 25 percent of Africa is desert. Sahara is not the only desert in Africa.
Checked the forecasts of 10 largest cities in Africa, lowest avg. daily temperatures in Jan/July in Celsius.
Lagos: 30/26
Kinshasa: 27/29
Cairo: 18/34
Johannesburg: 24/14
Khartoum: 29/35
Dar es Salaam: 30/24
Alexandria: 16/26
Abidjan: 29/25
Algiers: 13/28
Kano: 21/26
The 4 sub-20 cities are either coastal cities or very close to the coast, those away from seas/oceans are what can be accurately described as "hot".
> most of sub-saharan africa has moderate temperatures
That climate map is deceptive. It may lead you to believe that "blue" areas are very cool, yet Kinshasa is in Congo, the country with the most blue/deep blue color on that climate map.
Kindu, a 172 000 town closest to the deep blue area on that map is 24/28, not the coolest place on Earth.
- flukus 9y agoYour definition may differ, or maybe mines is skewed from living in Australia, but I would consider most of those temperate, the only exceptions being Cairo and Khartoum. > More than 25 percent of Africa is desert. Sahara is not the only desert in Africa. Deserts also get extremely cold.
- gspetr 9y agoYou might be right, mine's skewed too. This is where I grew up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novosibirsk#Climate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novosibirsk#Climate Them deserts got nothing on Siberia. I'm all too familiar with +30 Summer, -30 Winter swings, and those are far from pleasant.
- b0rsuk 9y agoDeserts get extremely cold because there's too little vegetation. Vegetation holds water. Water is amazing for storing warmth. Without humidity, it's up to the Sun, so very hot in day and cold at night. Why there's no vegetation ? Because there's hot during the day.
- sangnoir 9y agoMaybe you can help me out and point out which temperatures you listed can be described as be "harsh"? The American south has summer averages hotter than all of them but I'm yet to hear anyone call Austin's climate "harsh"
- gspetr 9y agoI reread my message and I see that I misspoke and can easily be interpreted the way you say. Also, the "method" I used is neither very sound nor in any way scientific. Just a very subjective level of comfort for me. Allow me to add some clarity: I listed the lowest daytime temperature of ANY day of Jan/July, not avg temperature in a month. According to that method Austin is 9/35. Sub-25 Celsius is a temperature I find comfortable enough. And looking through the data Austin looks like it's good enough from late October through mid-April, so that's about 5.5 months of nice enough weather in my opinion. But a very hot summer is not something I like. I'll be spending this winter in Vietnam, not so much for the comfort of it, but to travel and catch up with a few friends that relocated there.
- krakensden 9y agoPeople call Texas' climate harsh all the time, it's pretty darn hot there in the summer.