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Guinea - Climate

The coastal region of Guinea and most of the inland have a tropical climate, with a rainy season lasting from April to November, relatively high and uniform temperatures, and high humidity. Conakrys year-round average high is 29°C (85°F), and the low is 23°C (74°F); its average annual rainfall is 430 centimeters (169 inches). Sahelian Upper Guinea has a shorter rainy season and greater daily temperature variations.

Guinea is the birthplace of the three most important rivers in West Africa, the Niger, the Senegal and the Gambia, but there is a lack of drinking water in many parts of Guinea. Guinea's capital Conakry is the world's most humid capital, with annual rainfall of about 4000 mm. Conakry is a tropical maritime climate, year-round hot and humid, the average annual temperature of 26.4°, the maximum temperature of 38.1°. November each year to April the following year for the dry season, May to October for the rainy season. Rainy season south wind and southwest wind, the maximum wind speed up to 43.2 km / h, the average wind speed of 22 km / h. The annual precipitation in the Conakry area is above 4000 mm, with a maximum annual precipitation of 5800 mm and a minimum annual rainfall of 3031 mm. Rainfall precipitation averages more than 95% of the total annual precipitation.

Guinea's location places it in a favorable position for rainfall, which is generally adequate but limited over most of the country to a rainy season alternating with a dry one. The climate ranges from tropical to subtropical. Sustained heat and humidity are characteristic of the coastal lowlands and the forested area of the southern interior. In contrast, the climate of the central plateaus is more refreshing. Particularly noticeable in the eastern savannas are the heat and the low humidities experienced during the rather long dry season. Vegetation is affected by the climatic variations and in its natural state included rain forest in the southeast, deciduous and broadleaf evergreen forest in the areas west of the central plateaus, and deciduous forest on the plateaus and the plains of eastern Guinea. Human activities have brought extensive changes, however, and present-day vegetation includes large areas of savanna grassland, woodland, and bush.

The country's varied elevations affect the amount of rain and produce considerable climatic diversity. The principal determining factors in the length of the seasons, however, are the tropical maritime monsoon, which carries moisture-laden air from the southwest over West Africa during the wet season, and the dry, hot, and dusty harmattan, which originates over the Sahara region and blows from the northeast during the dry period.

These two air masses move regularly in response to the apparent movement of the sun back and forth across the equator. At the peak of its northward course the monsoonal air mass covers, and brings rain to, all of Guinea. The harmattan, however, usually pushes southward just through the Forest Region, and its effect there is pronounced for at most two months. The zone of contact of the two air masses is characterized by violent thunderstorms and squalls that move across the country with each advance and retreat of the front. In the coastal area the turbulence may result in tornadoes.

Lower Guinea has wet and dry seasons of roughly equal length. Because of the western escarpments of the Fouta Djallon and the effects they cause atmospherically in increasing precipitation, the region has a mean average rainfall of 110 inches or more annually, the highest anywhere in the country. In some places the total rainfall may far exceed this average; for instance, at Conakry it is usually close to 170 inches and may in some years be over 200 inches.

The wet season in the Fouta Djallon rarely exceeds four months, but some rainfall occurs during most other months. A mean average of about 100 inches falls in areas close to Lower Guinea's coastal region, seventy or more inches in the more central part of the highland, and about sixty inches in the eastern part. East of the Fouta Djallon the savannas of Upper Guinea have a rainfall that rarely exceeds sixty inches. Rain falls there principally between June and September, but storms may occur during any month; less than one-half inch is usually registered monthly, however, between December and March.

In much of the Forest Region precipitation occurs throughout most of the year; only in January is there usually less than one-half inch of rainfall. The average annual precipitation is somewhat less than in Lower Guinea, but the more extended period of rainfall permits growth of a rain forest vegetation in the region.

Guinea has particularly abundant natural resources, especially forests, meaning that it is considered as a carbon sink. In addition, more than 1000 watercourses and four of the major West African rivers rise in the country. These resources are under severe threat from the impact of climate change and regional population flows are likely to increase the pressure. Because of its geographical location, Guinea could become a refuge for people from neighbouring Sahelian countries to the north, especially pastoralists who are more seriously affected by drought and changes in rainfall patterns. Moreover, Guinea is of great significance to the aluminium industry in the world, as it holds more than one third of the planet's bauxite reserves.

With its present favourable climate for agriculture (average annual rainfall of 1200 mm in the North and NorthEast, 4000 mm in Conakry and up to 1800 mm in the mountains of Fouta-Djalon), Guinea is both exposed and sensitive to climate change and has very little capacity to adapt. The main impacts of climate change affecting the country include: i) an overall increase in average temperatures; ii) a drop in average annual rainfall especially in North-West and North-East Guinea, together with a change in the frequency and intra-year distribution of precipitations; and iii) the rising sea level (around 80 cm by 2100). These new climate conditions could therefore have negative consequences for many different sectors.

Nevertheless, even with altered rainfall patterns, Guinea should still continue to enjoy more favourable climatic conditions than its neighbours to the north and could become a more important transhumance destination for Sahelian herds than it is now, resulting in serious conflicts over land use.

Guinea is considered as the "water tower of West Africa". Four catchment basins of key importance to the sub-region, particularly due to their potential in terms of economic development and maintenance of biodiversity, have their source in Guinea. As a result of climate change, the flow rate of watercourses will be reduced, possibly by as much as 50% of the current daily average by 2100. For example, the flow of the Niger River is likely to reduce everywhere by between 16 and 28% (sensitivity 2.5°C) and up to 23-54% (sensitivity 4.5°C). Given Guinea's strategic location upstream of the main West African catchment basins, choices in respect of water resource management will inevitably have impacts downstream, beyond the borders of Guinea. These international implications mean that Guinea has an even greater responsibility to manage its resources appropriately in the face of climate change.

The coastal zone is of strategic importance to Guinea. It is the country's leading economic area and holds around 38% of its population. It also plays a key role for the agricultural and energy sectors and accounts for 24% of national rice production. Potentially arable land on the coast amounts to 1.3 million hectares, including 380,000 ha under cultivation every year. Various cereal, fruit and vegetable crops and tubers are grown in the mangrove hinterland. More than 140,000 ha of the 385,000 ha of mangroves currently in existence have been converted into rice paddies. As regards energy, the mangroves in the zone provide 60% of domestic energy for the capital and the main coastal towns.

The coastal zone is particularly vulnerable to climate change due to the rising sea level and intensified coastal erosion, leading to adverse effects on fishery resources, the destruction of infrastructure in coastal towns and villages and the disappearance or salinization of the rice paddies. All these factors mean that the coastal zone is under extreme pressure from the economic activities being undertaken there; the anarchic urbanization that arises from the lack of a Coast Code and noncompliance with the Land Code; and the impacts of climate change.