The West African Sahel: A Review of Recent Studies on the Rainfall Regime and Its Interannual Variability

Figure 14

(left) Schematic illustrating the four most common rainfall anomaly patterns over West Africa (from [36]). Light shading indicates below normal rainfall; dark shading indicates above normal rainfall. These are associated with a north or south displacement of the tropical rainbelt or an intensification or weakening of the tropical rainbelt over West Africa. The AEJ position is also indicated. (right) Rainfall as a function of latitude in the months of June through September for 1950 and 1984 (dipole years with a north/south displacement of the rainbelt, respectively and 1955 and 1983, non-dipole years with an intensification/weakening of the rainbelt, respectively).