Climate
Being so close to the equator, the forest zone experiences almost no variation in temperatures across the year. The climate is consistently hot, with maxima typically being about 31 °C and minima around 24 °C. In the Fouta Djallon and around Mont Nimba, maxima are about 27 °C but minima can be relatively low at 16 °C.
The major factor governing the climate of the forest zone is rainfall. During the northern summer, a vast area of very low pressure centred on India extends a trough across the region. This trough reaches its most northerly position between July and September driving extremely moist westerly winds onto the coast from the Atlantic and producing extremely heavy rain of as much as thirty inches per month in lowland sites in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. As this trough moves north and south, it creates two rainy seasons on the extreme southern coast: a heavy one between May and July and a lighter one in October and November.
During the northern winter, an anticyclone develops over the Sahara and drives dry northeasterly winds over the region, creating a dry season except in the extreme southeast (where the monsoonal low over Southern Africa has the unusual effect of producing westerly winds on its northern flank north of the equator). This effect is sufficiently widespread that the driest months of January and February are not totally dry on the coast as they are further inland (though average rainfall is typically only 1 inch per month even in Abidjan).
Total annual rainfall decreases with distance from the coast and is also heavily influenced by the aspect of the coastline. In the wettest areas of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, average annual rainfall ranges from 3000 to 5000 millimetres (120 to 200 inches), whilst in Abidjan it is about 2050 millimetres (81 inches), in Lagos 1800 millimetres (71 inches) and about 1400 millimetres (55 inches) at the northern edge of the forest.
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