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SierraConnection.com
Weather:
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SierraConnection.com
Satellite:
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African
Continent |
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.......................SierraConnection.comClimate:
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Historical
Climate Averages for Freetown, Sierra Leone
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Jan
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Feb
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Mar
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Apr
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May
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Jun
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Jul
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Aug
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Sept
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Oct
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Nov
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Dec
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High
Temp
(C
/ F)
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30
/ 86
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30
/ 87
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31
/ 88
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31
/ 88
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31
/ 88
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30
/ 86
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29
/ 84
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28
/ 83
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29
/ 84
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30
/ 86
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30
/ 86
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30
/ 85
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Low
Temp
(C
/ F)
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24
/ 75
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24
/ 75
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24
/ 76
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25
/ 77
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24
/ 76
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24
/ 74
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23
/ 74
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23
/ 73
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23
/ 74
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23
/ 74
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24
/ 75
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24
/ 75
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Precip
(mm / in)
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3
/ 0.13
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4
/ 0.14
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13
/ 0.49
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47
/ 1.85
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177
/ 6.98
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323
/ 12.72
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734
/ 28.91
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791
/ 31.15
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484
/ 19.06
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266
/ 10.46
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88
/ 3.44
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16
/ 0.63
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Cloud Cover (out
of 8)
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3.0
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3.0
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3.0
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4.0
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5.0
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6.0
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7.0
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7.0
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7.0
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6.0
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5.0
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3.0
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SierraConnection.com
Climate Overview:
Sierra Leone is
almost always hot and humid, but the best time to visit is November-April
(the absolute best month is December, when the wind known as harmattan
blows in from the desert and dries things out for a short time). Daytime
temperatures then average 86 F/30 C. The rest of the year sees more rain
and higher humidity -- it can be awfully uncomfortable (rainfall is heaviest
July-September, especially heavy in the coastal regions). In the early
part of the rainy season, rainstorms blow in primarily in the late afternoon
and evening. Later in the season, light rain falls all day. Take a sweater
if you're going to higher altitudes.
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Climate Guide:
The
three countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia lie on the west coast
of Africa between 4° and 12°N. All have a coastline facing southwest
towards the Atlantic Ocean and include an extensive coastal plain rising
inland to a plateau area where heights exceed 1,000 m/3,300 ft. This similarity
of situation and relief gives them a broadly similar climate.
In this part of Africa the
intertropical belt of cloud and rain migrates northwards and southwards
with the apparent movement of the overhead sun but lagging behind by some
four to six weeks.
From October to March, during
the period of low sun, the weather is generally dry with many fine, hot,
sunny days. The season of high sun, from April to September, is the rainy
season. The rainfall increases to a peak in July and August and then decreases
until rain has almost ceased by November.
In the north of Guinea the
rainy season is a little shorter than in Liberia to the south. Along the
coast of these three countries, however, there is not much difference in
the total annual rainfall, which is heavy everywhere, between 3,500 mm/160
in and 4,000 mm/180 in.
This can be seen by comparing
the table for Freetown in Sierra Leone, with those for Conakry in Guinea,
and Monrovia in Liberia.
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...continued
Annual rainfall only falls
below 2,000 mm/80 in inland in the extreme east of Guinea, near the border
with Mali. Temperatures are consistently high around the year on the coast
and, during the dry season, rise even higher inland. During the rainy season
the coastal region is most uncomfortable because of the high relative humidity,
which rarely drops below 80% during the daytime.
The climate of this part
of Africa has for long had an unenviable reputation; Sierra Leone was known
as 'the white man's grave'. The high death rate among Europeans living
there was due more to tropical diseases than to the direct effects of the
climate.
There is no doubt, however,
that the combination of constant high temperature and humidity makes this
an uncomfortable climate. The higher temperatures inland are to some extend
mitigated by the lower humidity. The harmattan, a persistent northeast
wind, which blows during the dry season, is often dust-laden.
Sunshine amounts are rather
low on the coast, particularly during the wet season when they average
two to three hours a day. These figures rise inland, particularly in eastern
Guinea. During the dry season they rise to eight to nine hours a day inland,
but in some places on the coast they may be as low as five to six.
The table for Freetown illustrates
conditions around the year in the coastal districts of Sierra Leone.
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