What are the conditions like?
- Rain falls only 1 or 2 months of the year.
- The total amount of rainfall in the rainy season is 250mm - 450mm
- Since 1970 rainfall has more often than not been below average (sometimes 25% below)
- Sometimes when the rain is torrential then it is lost as surface run-off and causes flooding.
- But in other years the rains fail completely.
Climate Change and Drought
With a combination of increased temperatures, increased evaporation, and reduced river flow, one very likely outcome of climate change is increased drought.
This is likely to vary, but it is thought that areas suffering from drought now will experience worse droughts in the future.
Niger
Chad
Sudan
Nigeria
Ethiopia
Sahel Drought
Focus on the
causes and impacts of drought