You probably woke up this morning and realized that the weather has changed. You can easily tell that we are in the Harmattan season. But have you ever asked yuorself how Harmattan comes about? Why does the atmosphere always look foggy and dry but cool?
Harmattan is hot, dry wind that blows from the northeast or east in the western Sahara and is strongest in late November to mid-March.
It usually carries large amounts of dessert dust, which it transports hundreds of kilometres out over the Atlantic Ocean.
The harmattan is a trade wind strengthened by a low-pressure centre over the north coast of the Gulf of Guinea and a high-pressure centre located over northwestern Africa over the adjacent Atlantic Ocean during other seasons.
It is undercut by the cooler winds of the southwest monsoon, blowing in from the ocean; this forces the harmattan to rise to an altitude of about 900 to 1,800 metres (about 3,000 to 6,000 feet).
So the white fog-like atmosphere is actually dust which slowly settles to the ground. The dust particles are so tiny that it takes a long time to settle to the ground. It normally takes weeks to. Because of the dust in the atmosphere, the sun rays is trapped and not enough reached us on the ground, hence and the weather becomes dry by cool.
Do you like the Harmattan? What do you like about the Harmattan any way. I enjoy the cool weather it brings… and the chritsmas feeling. I don’t know about you. You can leave a comment below.
