Climate Extremes

The Sahel is the transition zone between the Sahara Desert and the savannas of Africa.  The Sahel covers an area of 1,178,000 square miles.  The Sahel contains parts of the countries of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea.

The Sahel promises a glimpse of what climate change might have in store for certain regions of the World - - where climate extremes from drought to flood become increasingly the norm.  The Sahel typically has a nine-month dry season, roughly from October to June - - temperatures can get as hot as 122 degrees F.  Subsistence farmers await the rains in the best of times and the best of times still produced malnutrition that kills 225,000 children per year in just five Sahel countries.

In the last five years, rains have also produced problems.  Flooding has been a problem - - the rain coming all at once.  Ruined crops and displaced farmers have caused crippling food problems.

This particular part of Africa may increasingly be facing a future of extreme dry and extreme wet cycles.  Climate scientists are predicting 25% less rain a year by 2100 - - others have predicted a 25% increase that if the rain comes in isolated bursts will cause more destructive floods.  The two extremes making living and survival in this unique ecosystem very difficult.

The Sahel is a good example of the issues engineering will be facing regarding climate change.  The future may become more about climate change adaption and mitigation strategies - - where emergency action is highly important, but equally important are prevention strategies that recognize emergency actions are not the way to effectively tackle a recurring problem.

Petra Tschakert is a professor at Penn State - - she is a n expert in this field and has a great website at:

Petra Tschakert

The Pacific Institute also has a great collection of global water resource databases:

The Pacific Institute