A Weather Update

Volta Region vegetation

The North during dry season. Notice how grey the
sky is

When you think about weather in Africa, two things come to mind. The first is that it is extremely hot and the second is heavy rains. Ghana is located close to the Equator and thus there isn’t the dramatic differences in temperatures that are experienced in Canada which is much further from the Equator. Depending on whether you are in the North or the South of Ghana, the seasons are different. The North has only two season with the dry season lasting from November to April and the wet season from May to October. The South experiences four seasons with the dry seasons lasting from July to August and from December to April. The wet seasons are from May to June and September to November. So currently we are nearing the end of the dry season known as harmattan. The dry season does provide some relief from the humidity of the wet season however the dust has become unbearable at times as the harmattan has become more intense. The rains have started again despite it being the beginning of April and it has brought some welcome relief from the heat. Western Region in particular seems to get rain fairly frequently as it rained briefly on the drive to the project site a few weeks ago and it rained as I returned from a trip there last weekend. 

The vegetation is very different than the
tropical South

The South and North also differ dramatically in climate. Tamale can often reach up to 37° during the dry season while Accra is usually around 31°-33° (a ‘cool’ day in Accra is around 28°). The North is very dry compared to the moist tropical heat of Accra. I found the heat less oppressive in Tamale despite the actual temperature being higher because it wasn’t so moist. I did notice that my skin was cracking from the lack of moisture in the air. The vegetation is different too. The lush, green forests of the South are replaced with savannah in the North.

Limited visibility in Cape Coast (Fort Victoria)

I have been really suffering from asthma in the last few months. I am coughing a lot more and getting short of breath. This is not completely related to the weather because the fumes from cars on the road are horrible and I’m breathing those in on my walk to and from the office everyday. I’ve noticed my throat is dry a lot and my skin gets quite dry and itchy. Trying to prevent dust from covering everything in my room is a losing battle also. I’m diligent about cleaning the fan in my room to reduce the dust being blown about.

Normally you would be able to see this Church
from Fort Victoria

The harmattan was fairly mild this year from what I have been told. There was only a week where the dust clouds were so thick that you couldn’t see things at a short distance. It was really unfortunate that I visited both Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle during the dry season because under normal conditions, the buildings are visible from one another. As you can see from the pictures, the sky is really grey and the visibility is limited. I wish I had taken a picture of the dust clouds when it was really bad because it was remarkable to see. It is similar to fog in Canada except that it is dust. 

View of Cape Coast from Elmina Castle. You should
be able to see Cape Coast Castle from here but
because of the harmattan you can't

Now that the rains have started again, it is a welcome relief from the dry season. The power should be more consistent as there is more water flowing through the hydroelectric dams. The sky is more blue than it was during the dry season. Predicting the weather in Ghana is fairly easy (most days are the same), yet predicting rain is quite difficult. The days where the clouds look like it will rain never actually rain.