For the past few years, the world weather has been a little… well, weird, because I can’t think of a better word. Record temperatures at both extremes, droughts and floods, heat waves and cold snaps, fires and blizzards, often in totally unexpected places – you name it, it seems to be happening! Here are some of Africa’s strangest recent weather patterns in our part of the world.
Strange African weather conditions
1) Lightning does not strike the same spot twice
Oh yes it does. In 2011, in Blouberg, Cape Town, South Africa, two friends were sitting in their garden watching a storm with their video camera rolling when they were startled by a lightning strike that struck the ground just meters in front of them… And one more, exactly in the same place, a few seconds later! No doubt they wouldn’t have been believed if they hadn’t gotten that video camera to work, but since then the video has gone viral in no time!
2) Snow – in Egypt ?!
Yes. In December 2013 (Friday December 13, 2013, indeed…) a sudden severe cold snap in Egypt caused several cities, including Alexandria, Madinaty and Cairo, to experience a copious blanket of snow several inches deep – something that it hasn’t been there for well over a century! Indeed, two Mediterranean ports were closed due to bad weather and in Aleppo, a northern city being fought over by soldiers and rebels, both warring factions took a break from fighting because it was too cold to continue. Surely an event of this magnitude should be added to the list of weird African weather patterns.
3) Hail to Cape Town
In another shocking weather event, that in South Africa, Cape Town was caught between two storms on Sunday 2 June 2013 – and the resulting clash caused temperatures to plummet and a few inches of hailstones to fall to the ground. Cape Town was reportedly the coldest day it “ever” was. Cape Town earned the nickname “The City of Storms” that day!
4) Most lightning strikes per year
The Democratic Republic of the Congo holds the unofficial world record for most lightning strikes per year at around 70 per km 2 . Luckily it’s only in “parts” of the DRC, how these numbers would work across the country with a few strikes a year in every backyard of the country if it was consistently this high!
5) Highest temperature in the world
Another weather record Africa holds to date is The highest temperature ever recorded – measured at El Aziza, Libya on September 13, 1922 was recorded at 57.8°C, although some believe this was a recording error. It’s of course not a record that’s likely to be broken anytime soon, although given the weather lately you probably shouldn’t hold your breath!
6) The hottest inhabited place on the planet
You have to admit it’s not that big of a surprise that this is a place in Africa – in fact it’s Dallol in Ethiopia, where the average daily maximum temperature for the six years from 1960 to 1966 was 41.1°C. Note that the *average temperature* is every day for six years. So for every day it wasn’t that hot, another day it was so much hotter… Dallol must have been hell on earth to live through those years!
7) Deadliest weather disaster of 2011
This was the drought that hit East Africa after both rainy seasons that year failed completely, leaving Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia in a case so bad that the UN officially declared a famine there (the first time the UN has declared a famine in thirty years explained). In fact, in parts of these areas it was the driest 12-month period on record. At least 30,000 children died, with the overall death toll estimated to be much higher. In early 2012, malnutrition and hunger affected millions of people in the sub-Saharan Sahel region.
8) 2012 floods
After the drought in some parts of Africa in 2012, the same year, other parts moved in the opposite direction: the floods in May (Rwanda) and October (Nigeria) caused massive damage and claimed lives. Probably one of Mother Nature’s little jokes.
9) Giant Metal Hail?!
Last but not least on this list of weird African weather conditions is a hail of metal balls falling from the sky! In May 2000, metal balls fell from the sky and landed in the countryside near Cape Town. This left 8 inch wide dents in the ground and local farmers were completely confused as to where they came from. Eventually, NASA scientists admitted they were parts of a 1996-launched Delta rocket that fell from the tide of “space debris” now orbiting the Earth, and promised the US government would compensate them if if someone was hit by one.
Hmm – 8 inch metal ball falling to the ground from space… If someone was hit by one, do you think they would be alive to claim that compensation?!
Editor’s Recommendations
- 10 scary urban myths and legends from around the world
- 5 Most Bizarre African Myths and Legends
- 20 extraordinary pictures of Africans