17
Records are constantly being broken: in Africa 19 of the past 20 years have been
hotter than any previous year on record. The new normal for temperature is hotter
than ever experienced in the recorded past.
Historic precipitation patterns show that much of Africa is drying (Hartmann
et al. 2013, Fig. 2.1). West Africa and parts of southern Africa, particularly Zambia
Fig. 2.1 Historical changes in precipitation from 1951 to 2010 (From Niang et al. 2014). The map
has been derived from a linear trend. Areas with insufficient data are marked as white, solid colors
indicate statistically significant trends at 10% level, and diagonal lines indicate areas where trends
are not statistically significant
2 Future Climate Projections in Africa: Where Are We Headed?
Records are constantly being broken: in Africa 19 of the past 20 years have been
hotter than any previous year on record. The new normal for temperature is hotter
than ever experienced in the recorded past.
Historic precipitation patterns show that much of Africa is drying (Hartmann
et al. 2013, Fig. 2.1). West Africa and parts of southern Africa, particularly Zambia
Fig. 2.1 Historical changes in precipitation from 1951 to 2010 (From Niang et al. 2014). The map
has been derived from a linear trend. Areas with insufficient data are marked as white, solid colors
indicate statistically significant trends at 10% level, and diagonal lines indicate areas where trends
are not statistically significant
2 Future Climate Projections in Africa: Where Are We Headed?