Why Is There a Desert in Somalia? Odd Geography

Why is there a desert in Somalia and Kenya, extending to the equator? For that matter, why is East Africa home to savannas and woodlands, rather than the rainforest we often find at such equatorial latitudes? And shouldn't subtropical West Asia be more humid, considering the fact that subtropical deserts are usually absent from eastern coastlines? The expansive deserts and savannas of Eastern Africa and Western Asia are explained in this video.
00:00 (Introduction)
02:00 (ITCZ Explained)
03:30 (Asian Monsoon Winds)
04:06 (Rain Shadow)
05:18 (Winter Monsoon Winds)
05:52 (Southern Hemisphere Monsoon)
06:31 (The Silver Lining)
07:02 (Upwelling)
08:08 (Somali Jet)
08:56 (Turkana Jet)
09:43 (Effect of Madagascar)
Image Sources:
Daniel Davis (creator)
NASA
NOAA
Wikipedia Creative Commons: Charles J. Sharp, Manuel Werner, Byekwaso Blasio, Krg, Rhanjit Baskar.
Flickr Creative Commons: DFID-UK Department for International Development
earth.nullschool.net
Google Earth
Information Sources:
Nicholson, S. (2011). Dryland Climatology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511973840 p. 293-320.
Barimalala, R., Desbiolles, F., Blamey, R. C., & Reason, C. (2018). Madagascar Influence on the South Indian Ocean Convergence Zone, the Mozambique Channel Trough and Southern African Rainfall. Geophysical Research Letters. doi:10.1029/2018gl079964
Sharma, S., Ha, KJ., Cai, W. et al. Local meridional circulation changes contribute to a projected slowdown of the Indian Ocean Walker circulation. npj Clim Atmos Sci 5, 15 (2022). doi.org/10.1038/s41612-022-00...
King, J. A., Engelstaedter, S., Washington, R., & Munday, C. (2021). Variability of the Turkana low-level jet in reanalysis and models: Implications for rainfall. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 126, e2020JD034154. doi.org/10.1029/2020JD034154
Vizy, E. K., and Cook, K. H. (2003), Connections between the summer east African and Indian rainfall regimes, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 4510, doi:10.1029/2003JD003452, D16.
Rito, T., Vieira, D., Silva, M., Conde-Sousa, E., Pereira, L., Mellars, P., … Soares, P. (2019). A dispersal of Homo sapiens from southern to eastern Africa immediately preceded the out-of-Africa migration. Scientific Reports, 9(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-019-41176-3
Maslin, M. A., Shultz, S., & Trauth, M. H. (2015). A synthesis of the theories and concepts of early human evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370(1663), 20140064-20140064. doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0064
Estes, R. (1991). The Behavior Guide to African Mammals. University of California Press. pp. 240-242. ISBN 978-0-520-08085-0.
Kingdon, J. (1988). East African Mammals: An Atlas of Evolution in Africa, Volume 3, Part B: Large Mammals. University of Chicago Press. pp. 147-61
O’connor, D., Stacy‐Dawes, J., Muneza, A., Fennessy, J., Gobush, K., Chase, M. J., Mueller, T. (2019). Updated geographic range maps for giraffe, Giraffa spp., throughout sub‐Saharan Africa, and implications of changing distributions for conservation. Mammal Review. doi:10.1111/mam.12165
Monsoon wind and maritime trade: a case study of historical evidence from Orissa, India. Sila Tripati and L. N. Raut. Current Science, Vol. 90, No. 6 (25 March 2006), pp. 864-871.
Asefa, M., Cao, M., YunYun, H., Mekonnen, E., Song, X., & Jie, Y. (2020). Ethiopian vegetation types, climate and topography. Plant Diversity. doi:10.1016/j.pld.2020.04.004
Glaw, F. (2015). "Taxonomic checklist of chameleons (Squamata: Chamaeleonidae)". Vertebrate Zoology. 65 (2): 167-246.
Groves, C. P. (2005). Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 157.
Ahrens, C. D. (2013). Meteorology Today (10th ed., pp. 490-492). Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
Monthly Wind Climatology. Climate Monitoring Technologies, Columbia University. iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/mapro...
Chatterjee, A., Kumar, B. P., Prakash, S., & Singh, P. (2019). Annihilation of the Somali upwelling system during summer monsoon. Scientific Reports, 9(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44099-1
NOAA

[@dealingwithkatherine4068]

I am studying seasonal rainfall in this region for my PhD and this video encapsulates basically every way in which this region is so dry. Similar to El Nino (and La Nina), the Indian Ocean undergoes a similar type of variability called the IOD (Indian ocean dipole). Occasionally, when SST (sea surface temperature) anomalies are high in the west, such that the water temperature is above average, this can (for a brief period) increase rainfall in east Africa. This typically only occurs in the 'short rains' season from October-December since positive IOD events only tend to occur following boreal summer. positive IOD events increased rainfall in east Africa in short rains 2023 and 2019, bringing flooding and a high impact on the people who live there.

[@alexanderconrad669]

Why is the rainfall during boreal spring not increased but the rainfall during boreal autumn is? For example in April when the ITC is in east Afrika, only moving in the other direction bringing convection close to potentially warmer ocean waters during El Nino?

[@dealingwithkatherine4068]

​@@alexanderconrad669 this is because positive IOD events typically begin in boreal summer, so the strong SST anomalies associated with them are at their peak around October alongside the short rains season. For more info I recommend reading Saji et al 1999 "A dipole mode in the tropical Indian Ocean". Variability in the long rains season in the most recent decades is characterised more by La Nina, such that La Nina brings drought during this rainfall season.

[@Anoss91]

no, sorry. The Sahara was green and full of water 6000 years ago. Life developed there. A few things ravaged everything in a very short time, and it was this devastation that changed the conditions not the other way around, water or no water, you don't create a desert like that, PHD or not, you are wrong.

[@thecoder7188]

As a person who lives in Central Somalia 🇸🇴 i always used to ask myself why my country is hot desert while the neighbouring countries aren't. Thanks for explaining this important topic.

[@JustinYiseverywhere]

Freedom for Ogaden

[@user-pm2nv2ck8u]

@@JustinYiseverywhere Insha' Allah

[@WARLORDDOM]

Hahahha Hahahah Ogaden will be free Of Somalia

[@Mrbarentsberg]

​@@WARLORDDOM the leader of ogedon was assassinated😂😂😂

[@user-ko2lp6zb6o]

It didn't feel like a desert when I was there. More like savannah ish

[@orpheus1662]

Hundreds of trees are cut down daily in Somalia and shipped to the UAE as charcoal. The UAE might seem like a first world country but they require charcoal for some reason.

[@casualearth9076]

Yes, a local sea breeze circulation helps to create a belt of scrub and forest a few kilometers inland in part of Somalia. But this unfortunately is a heavily degraded habitat, and most of the country has suffered similar habitat destruction. All of the megafauna adapted to arid Kenya (Grevy's Zebra, Reticulated Giraffe, etc.) were once widespread in Somalia.

[@skp8748]

That's only down south... Puntland Galmudug and Somaliland have strict laws against it

[@mohamedhussein4124]

It’s business

[@franceshorton918]

@casualearth Such a shame that humans will cut down the trees and bush, And Not Plant Replacements. Maybe the people need to live TODAY and have no capacity to think of their children's world tomorrow. Perhaps no one would care for the emergent bush. Allow their hungry animals to graze. Mankind's stewardship of the very environment that could sustain them (and their livestock) is broken. I wonder why this isn't obvious.... ?

[@skp8748]

@@franceshorton918 illegal trade with UAE who buy from Al shabab

[@vlachlemnmichail]

Man you went from like 15.000 to now almost 80.000 subscribers in the last three months. Keep uploading a little bit more frequently and you'll boom, your style is very appreciable.

[@casualearth9076]

Thanks, I am completing a teaching certification this year and that takes most of my free time. After I finish it, I'll be able to upload a lot more frequently.

[@solomon4554]

​@@casualearth9076best of luck to you!

[@daltonmiller5590]

@@casualearth9076 You're doing exactly what I aim to do in the future. Just started Uni to become a history professor. I've thought about doing KZbin videos on the side, but I have no idea where to start. You're a great inspiration! This is the level of quality content I hope to one day begin to create.

[@wxcvbndu51]

​@@casualearth9076yeah focus on your academic certification for now, that's the most stable path between this and KZbin. Still, I'll stay tuned to see what you have coming next!

[@evandewey6539]

East africa is fascinating in so many ways. Great video

[@jacobdewey2508]

So true!

[@tedsteiner]

The cradle of humanity :)

[@torstimyle1355]

​@@tedsteiner evolution is illusion

[@AliHussein-gv6nh]

Somalia 🇸🇴 you meant 😆 ancient land

[@joalvarado8506]

It’s more fascinating when you realize that one of the world’s major language families originated there. Afro-Asiatic people came from the horn and their early forms of pre-agriculture influenced true agriculture in the Levant some few thousand years later and likely contributed to the drying in the area as well. The Egyptians themselves believed that they and their gods came from the land of Punt.

[@gabiesanchez8943]

As a Kenyan, I now understand why Kenya has such varied climates from East to West (1000 miles apart), and why the Turkana region has such powerful winds, and also so dry. I get why South Sudan experiences heavy storms and sometimes flooding creating superb pastures, and it totally makes sense. (Maybe the same weather effect influences the South Sudanese height in some way; weather> superb pastures> many cows> lots of milk> calcium in milk helps in bone growth> tall people). Netherlands has a very tall population and they consume a lot of dairy products. And yes, these climatic conditions in Eastern Africa must have played a huge part in human evolution. The East African region is very fascinating to archaeologists because they have found some of the oldest evidence of human activity in this region. Early man must have actively looked for the warm, moderately wet climate of East Africa in order to increase his comfort and his chance of survival.

[@neverlookback1244]

The pygmies live a few kilometers away in the forests of Central African Republic and they are one of the shortest people

[@RazorMureithi]

could not have said it better

[@lukahkamande6826]

I understand why Kengen is planning to create another wind farm in Marsabit county

[@meaktooni]

North Kenya North itiobia Djibouti somalia land is somaliland 🇸🇴🇸🇴🇸🇴🇸🇴🇩🇯🇩🇯🇩🇯🇩🇯

[@kaboonali5466]

@@meaktooniwhy are you telling

[@waspjournals41]

On reddit people ask this question all the time and every single comment gives a different explanation for the unusual dryness of the Horn of Africa. This video explains it very well (And I will be posting a link to it whenever the topic comes up again). Truly fascinating. Thank you.

[@skp8748]

Somali plate... Younger dryas

[@solomon4554]

@@skp8748 Mount Kilimanjaro, Somali Plateau..

[@leopoldopetrieska6564]

outstanding video. comprehensive, interesting, clarifying, just couldnt stop watching it!

[@leoc544]

My friend thank you so much for this. I’ve been wondering about this for ages and never got to fully understand it until now. Quality content at its finest, cheers and keep up!

[@GnomaPhobic]

I really enjoyed this video. Discovering your channel has been a real pleasure this year, I'm realizing how little I know about how physical geography influences weather and climate; I have a history background and it's cool to discover a whole new perspective on natural forces that have shaped human history. Keep up the great work!

[@MikaerBrasil]

Thanks for explaining this! I am also curious about northeast Brazil. Though not a desert, it has a semiarid climate near Equador and near the Amazon rain forest. It is called the Caatinga region. Hopefully, you could make a video about it one day

[@joaovictor536]

Yeah! The Brazilian semi-arid is truly an interesting topic to explore

[@casualearth9076]

Yes, the Caatinga is fascinating and it is also near the Atlantic Rainforest on the east coast. Along with the Cerrado, it divides this rainforest from the Amazon. I have written many notes about it and touched on it briefly in my video about primates, but not the climate. My plan was to cover it in at the same time that I cover the lack of hurricanes in the South Atlantic, as these topics fit together.

[@everettduncan7543]

The southern hemisphere is on average colder than the north, because there is so much more uninterrupted water flow. This causes drier conditions in many areas that had Antarctica still been connected to either Australia or South America would have blocked.

[@forgetful3360]

Based on radiocarbon dating of potsherds, proponents of historical ecology such as William Denevan and William Balee have suggested that large sections of the Caatinga region may be of anthropogenic origin. Over 1000 years ago, native peoples may have unintentionally created the environment of the modern-day Caatinga through constant slash-and-burn agriculture, thereby stymying plant succession and preventing major rainforests from growing within the region.[7] Conversely, fossil evidence suggests that the Caatinga may historically have been part of a much larger dry belt.[4][5]. Wikipedia

[@forgetful3360]

The Wikipedia article goes on to describe on going desertification in the region due to overgrazing and tree cutting for firewood etc. For overgrazing, read the same stupid grazing practices of the past 10000 years that have aridified vast regions of formerly productive forest and savannah.

[@innis17]

Another great video! thanks for uploading!

[@amillison]

Thanks so much for this video. I have been trying to answer this exact question after doing some research on Dodoma, Tanzania. I could not undertand why this area of Africa is so arid, but now I have an explanation. Keep up the great work :-)

[@Trollogrefey]

Fascinating video as per usual, great job.

[@BraveOnE_]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and Research, you answered all the key points of climate questions that we ask our selves. Lived both Somalia and Kenya 🇸🇴 🇰🇪 experienced this in first hand.

[@BIickyMouse]

You’re killing it dude. I don’t know anything about weather but you sure have peaked my interests. Best of luck with your channel!

[@KnowHistory]

I loved to learn about this! Thank you for the vid!

[@m.streicher8286]

Have you done a video looking at the species that have tiny ranges (

[@edmondantes4338]

Thank you. Once again this video is the most complete explanation for this geographical oddity that I've ever come across, usually only the direction of the monsoon winds is mentioned.

[@watchyourlanguage3870]

I’ve been waiting so long for this exact video, thanks!!

[@solomon4554]

Same!

[@user-pg1ns1tf3o]

this is quality content. pretty sure you're gonna go big, love the content and style , keep finding interesting stuff to share us!

[@Geo197Plus]

Good explanation. Thanks for doing this nice video, perfect script and perfect video.

[@vinayparakala656]

Great video. I’ve been looking for a channel like this for years

[@MagdalenaBarszczewska]

Thank you for explaining it so well, i had a great time watching it

[@kristinaoravcova372]

Top quality content! Thanks :)

[@amyheath6324]

Always excited for a new video

[@TrickstaleX]

Great video! Very well explained. This really is prime content that you create here!!!

[@brooksarahl1652]

Hey I love geography and this is the perfect needy channel to get into all the details of the world! Keep up the great work!

[@Bru7aLis]

Thank you so much for all your videos. Intriguing topics, amazing insight, no clickbait, straight to the point. Love it. Wish you many subscribers and views. You truly deserve them.

[@ashryverxS]

always videos on subjects of my previous interests, ones that needed some holes filling 10/10 channel

[@vaaggasje]

This channel is so good!

[@AlissonBirck]

So well explained! That was amazing

[@serenissimarespublicavenet3945]

I really love your channel! I discovered you during the long break you had between uploads, and watched all your previous videos. I was so happy when you uploaded again! I really hope that in future, as you get more and more popular, you keep your great habits of putting all sources in the description and keeping your videos relatively short. Sadly, most "educational" youtube content has, over the past five years, turned into half an hour long entertainment garbage. Keep up with the good work!

[@jordanp5469]

This is my favorite geography channel on KZbin

[@oiaeyu]

I was hoping you would make a video about this. I had the exact same question while worldbuilding climate zones for a map but could never get a straight forward answer to this, thank you!

[@Hydrogen101]

I live in Nairobi, Kenya, and I was curious about this. Hot af and dry down by the coast, but temperate at the city and rain forest all the way to the west coast of central Africa. Rwanda and Congo are wet and magnificent (can get colder than you think!), and similar elevation to Nairobi, but wetter. But why is Eastern Africa dry at the equator? Now I know!

[@vivabratislava]

isn't Nairobi located in highlands? that is why is cooler

[@JL-ti3us]

I cant recall if it was this channel, but you guys should really look for videos on subtropical highland climates and how the correspond with tropical population density. Kenya, Mexico, Columbia prime examples.

[@solomon4554]

@@JL-ti3us it's called Geodiode, his climate videos are the creme de la creme.

[@casualearth9076]

@@JL-ti3us Yes, I covered this in my video "the Geography of Mountain Civilizations".

[@casualearth9076]

Nairobi is almost 1800 meters in elevation (5,889 feet). That's a very significant elevation difference compared to the coast.

[@TheNamelessChicken]

I googled this a couple weeks ago and everything I could find was incomprehensibly dry research papers, so walked away without a satisfying answer. Thank you so much for clearing this up

[@guupser]

Quality content! Looking forward to more😊

[@esterparis1190]

Clear and well-detailed explanations on a very complex subject.

[@kamal-hassan]

I’m from Somalia and it’s quite arid here. Very low rainfall and droughts most of the time.

[@mohamedhussein4124]

Northern somalia 🇸🇴 not south somalia is savanna and forest

[@shukriiii]

In Hargeysa it rained a lot during spring in the year I lived there. What part of Somalia are you in? Only parts of the central region are more desert like.

[@kamal-hassan]

The north is the most arid region in Somalia with little to no rainfall. Even there's scarcity of water. Puntland and Somaliland regions are the driest.@@shukriiii

[@sentimentalsediment]

Another fascinating video!

[@habibi_sport312]

One of the best scientific, historical and just in general KZbin videos I have ever seen. You just gained a subscriber bro, well done and keep going!

[@Hydrogen101]

I’d like to learn more about the upwelling off the coast. It’s hot bath water off Mombasa and I find it hard to believe there’s cold water out there. But it makes sense there would be because the winds can get cool at night when it blows onshore. Also, that Turkana wind blows from Mombasa, over Nairobi, and out to Lake Kisumu. Fascinating!

[@solomon4554]

Mombasa has a Savanna climate as opposed to an arid one.

[@casualearth9076]

Mombasa is too far south to experience the upwelling system in Somalia, Yemen, and Oman. You're right, there is very warm water and no upwelling off Mombasa.

[@DJ_POOP_IT_OUT_FEAT_LIL_WiiWii]

moonbathon bath salts

[@Nick_J_]

It should be noted also, that the upwelling in this case is still relatively warm water. It is only cooler water compared to the very warm waters around Indonesia and such.

[@casualearth9076]

@@Nick_J_ This is mostly true, but isolated areas along Somalia and Oman do have water temperatures below 22 C (or about 72 F) in July. Those are the kind of water temperatures many people would wear a wetsuit in.

[@isoinic4575]

Amazing channel, great quality of the video with a fascinating scope

[@AlexanderRM1000]

I'd known most of these but this was a wonderful video, thanks for making it! I didn't know about the air pressure jets

[@ShaunOverton]

I'm glad you're back

[@maks9644]

Wow, what an incredible video, love it

[@esterparis1190]

Des explications claires et bien détaillées sur un sujet trés complexe. (Merci la traduction automatique !!!)

[@Markfr0mCanada]

Excellent video. Material like this was not covered in my own public education. I'm glad this platform exists today so folks like yourself can plug the gap.

[@chrishoo2]

Great information intelligently given & a good voice with which to present it!

[@simba995]

Great video. From Kenya and always wondered why 2/3 of the country to the east and north east are arid and semi arid. Finally got a comprehensive explanation. Thanks.

[@jdillon8360]

Very interesting! Thanks.

[@AironSmieciowy-di3qy]

Great video!

[@MoreSomalia]

Thanks for explaining it so well

[@raphaelwiedey3483]

I actually had this question for a while. Thank you!

[@xvegitto]

Thanks for the informative video. Subscribed

[@adurpandya2742]

This channel covers a lot of the questions I’ve had

[@MartinPike1314]

Great video. Thank you.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

Fascinating! I've often wondered about this!

[@yousefmohamed3488]

Great work , keep it up

[@BeepskiBopski]

I really really like this channel. Please keep the videos coming.

[@lt2143]

Very interesting and informative video! Congrats on 50K plus views in over 1 day!😮

[@Sergio1Rodrigues]

I've always wanted to know why that region was a desert, thanks!

[@MrPoornakumar]

Your presentation style is unique (with language spoken intelligible to all) and suits topics in Geography.

[@jinglemyberries866]

I really like this series thanks a lot.

[@thisguy317]

Casual Earth? More like hardcore earth! Thanks for your awesome videos.

[@sebastiangruenfeld141]

Amazing explanation! Could you do one on Australia?

[@Silvangreen]

Very interesting. Kudos.

[@DrRock2009]

Brilliant stuff! 👍

[@TheMolabola]

Very informative well done, this explains the occurring droughts in the horn of Africa.

[@karobiawho6845]

Having experienced the fierce Turkana winds, it's fascinating to know that they come all the way from the coast through gaps in the mountains.

[@CreativeJohnBeek]

Thank you for this clear discussion. And best of all no flashy images all the time. I do think outlining surface area's would help...

[@thanhavictus]

This is an incredible and well explained amount of information. Hope your channel does well. It would be nice to have a slower pace of information so that the density is more easily digested.

[@GhostScout42]

i like your plants, thanks for the video!

[@otashigo]

That's a lot of info to take in, hopefully we'll get more for different regions in the world

[@LucasSilva-kv3km]

Great video 👏👏 many thanks

[@jasonz7788]

Great job thanks 👍

[@g.a.bconsult3darchitectura892]

Am Peter Ngugi from Kenya and am a climatologist researcher. I have found some answers on this video which i have been finding concerning decline of long rains season (March April May) in this particular region (Equatorial Eastern Africa). As the ITCZ move southward from northern hemisphere during Short rains season (October - December), its seems Splitted / gap in between (eastern part and western part), and then join while being above the equator as far as being in southern hemisphere. The splitting phenomena create a vacuum in Somalia, eastern Ethiopia and eastern Kenya hence no tropical storms at this particular regions which ended up to dryness. Good work for a very informative Video..

[@dr.briandecker496]

I was literally just scrolling through Google earth a few weeks ago and saw this seemingly out of place desert and got curious so spend the next hour reading about it. This video is a fantastic summary!

[@wrenisprobablyb0red]

Wow. I was actually just wondering about this

[@s.leeyork3848]

This was/is fascinating! I want to know more

[@juancruzmarques2106]

Wow love this topic, it's amazing how all its geographic features impact a region's climate. Can you do Argentinian vs Chilean Patagonia? it's an interesting place to explore this topic in such detail.

[@pprehn5268]

Good lecture and visual material🌍🌎🌏

[@TheLuckyluc555]

Very good and interesting explanation

[@dziusznik]

looks like I found a new channel to binge. I love the content, I love your rhetoric skills aaand you look cute.

[@MacrobianNomad]

Thank you for the wonderfully demonstrated video, I found it very informative. Kudos to you and your work. I have a question regarding the current situation in Somalia and the flood with the El Niño phenomenon, which is came following a drought and a failed five consecutive rainy seasons. Looking at the geography, are these climate patterns going to be the norm in the future. Thank you very much!

[@AbdulKareemAbdulRahman]

amazing! thanks

[@heartlandauthor]

Thank you for this video! The Horn of Africa has always struck me as a climatological oddity.

[@berikoteuli4140]

great vid

[@LONE_WOLF_GANG]

If only The Weather Channel knew the value of this content and how it can drastically change the way people perceive a weather channel. You deserve a slot on TV.

[@Nuubynubnub.]

Please include all of the information you have on it, because it’d be waste to leave out details that you spent time on and that people would also really look forward to - I know I definitely am. you could make a second video that’s also 10 mins … or release a longer video

[@solomon4554]

I completely agree

[@mosquitobight]

India: "Thank you for the Monsoons" Somalia: -_-

[@casualearth9076]

Basically

[@MiroslavMydlo]

Very nice video, found you on Lemmy. Subscribed

[@nathanspreitzer6738]

How extremely informative

[@FrankFantasy]

Dahomey Gap is also an area where the shape of the coastline strongly influences the precipitation pattern, leading to a coastal savanna flanked by dense rainforests.

[@casualearth9076]

Yes, the monsoon winds are southwesterly, so they flow onshore in most of West Africa--but they only flow alongshore by Benin, leading to less monsoon rain there. There is an exact parallel to this along part of Oaxaca's coastline, which also faces southeast and thus is drier than adjacent shorelines.

[@FrankFantasy]

⁠@@casualearth9076Thanks a lot for replying. It’s truly remarkable that both the Dahomey and Oaxaca gaps are clearly visible in the seasonal precipitation pattern you showed at 5:20 as white spots surrounded by shades of blue.

[@lxmvnade6756]

MR DAVIS POSTED LETS GO 🗣️

[@ziizoziizo3553]

Thank you i am from the northern part of Somalia i always wondered why is our country so dry and desert. I once went to addis ababa it was so cold and rainy i was surprised that was the first time i experienced so much rain and cold.

[@user-fs4rc4en8r]

Why wind comes from West in East Africa is something I always wanted but failed to understand. Thank you very much for the explanation!

[@g.a.bconsult3darchitectura892]

That a very good question. lets me gives you a brief answer:- The Climatological winds systems in Eastern Africa is Easterly anomalies usually from the Indian Ocean (winds from east to west), now, winds from West usually comes from the Congo Basin (2nd Largest tropical rain forest on earth) under a climatological Pattern known as Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO).

[@bradbradson4543]

This was great

[@spoddie]

new subscriber. I'd love to see an analysis on the Australian continent.