Flying in rough weather

[mary meagher]

Hey, guys, I started a thread on this subject over in the Private Flying forum;
and put in my two cents about encountering CuNimb in the US, and the fact they are seldom found in the UK. Could any of you contribute on what kind of interesting weather is experienced in Africa?

Thank you very much.

[Sop_Monkey]

Not too different than parts of the US. What have got for Africa? Sandstorms, extreme heat, viscous thunderstorms with accompanied hail, torrential rain and lightning. Must be more

[MungoP]

Where in Africa ?... Have a look at a chart.. pretty big place. The worst of the weather is going to be found within about 5 deg north and south of the equator .. The ITCZ being responsible for that so in places like the Congo (both), CAR etc the rainy season is lurking somewhere pretty much for most of the year.. In other more arid areas the sand-storms can be of Hollywood proportions (Haboobs).. much of Africa can be pretty benign. As I said.. A big place.

[Ber Nooly]

Cbs are very common in the UK, occurring in every month of the year. In fact, the only place Cbs rarely form ae at the Poles.

Granted, in most cases the UK may not get quite the severity as some in the US or Africa, however they are usually more numerous, so picking a path through them can still be challenging. A Cb is a Cb and in no case should be treated lightly.

[Foxcotte]

Africa is a pretty big area of the world ranging from temperate to tropical to desert to mountainous regions. As a result it has a huge variety of weather to contend with. Extreme South has pretty big weather systems off the oceans, extreme north picks up European weather systems. The bit in the middle has a lot of everything but mostly controlled/dictated by the ITCZ running north to south in for one rainy season, then reversing and heading back north for the second rainy season.

As a frontal system its pretty stable, slow moving and distinct. Around the tropics it can throw up storms well in excess of 40,000' though. These CBs are part of the ITCZ but can either appear as embedded storms or individual CBs.. For the most part of the year, its possible to navigate around these storms say in East Africa - but in Central/West Africa these can be pretty wide ranging, with big winds and heavy rainfall and hard to get by. Tropical CBs definitely produce a lot of lightning/rain/hail and heavy turbulence during development stage - but compared to weather fronts in the USA or Europe, I'd say they are generally more predictable. I'm sure some out there have different experiences, but for my part CB's are an expected part of the weather systems we have, and tend to act in a predictably extreme way.

Other weather conditions in East Africa are low lying cloud/fog over high ground early mornings, sporadic cyclones off the Indian & Southern Oceans, multiple mini dust devils in desert/dry areas (I've counted 30+ on occasion), low level jet streams and the big desert winds of the North (Haboob, Sciroccos) with accompanying walls of dust/sand.

But aviation in the north will have a very different opinion of weather conditions to operators in the east, west or south. You might need to narrow down areas or the type of information you're after to get a more detailed answer....