Ethiopia Fact

Latitude, altitude, winds and humidity, with varying magnitude have significant impacts on temperature conditions in Ethiopia.

As the sun’s radiation is the source of all heat on earth, latitude is the primary consideration in the understanding of temperature.

Ethiopia lies within the tropics (30N to 180N latitude), a zone of maximum insolation where every place has overhead sun twice a year. However, as it is a highland country, tropical temperature conditions are not experienced everywhere. They are limited to the lowlands in the peripheries.

Away from the peripheries, the land begins to rise gradually and considerably, culminating in peaks in various parts of the country. The highlands form the heartland of the country.

Thus temperature, as it is affected by altitude, decreases towards the interior. Mean annual temperature varies from over 300C in the tropical lowlands to less than 100C at very high altitudes.

Ethiopia is, therefore, a country where both extremes of temperature are experienced. Altitude is the most important temperature controlling factor in the country.

Environmental influences have their own traditional expressions in Ethiopia and there are local terms denoting temperature zones.

Though it is a country located in the tropics, a good part of Ethiopia enjoys a temperature climate. However, unlike places in the middle latitudes, its temperature shows typical tropical characteristics.

In the tropics, daily range of temperature is high, and annual range is small, whereas the reverse is true in the temperate latitudes. In Ethiopia, as in all places in the tropics, the altitude of the sun is always high, making solar radiation intense.

The variation in the amount of solar radiation received daily, is small throughout the year. Temperature is high during the day, over 400C in some places, and is considerably reduced at night causing the daily range of temperature to be large.

But in the case of monthly averages, variation is minimal and the annual range of temperature is small. This holds true in both the highlands and lowlands.

As the sun is always high in the tropics, seasonal variation is not distinctly observable. However, there is a slight temperature increase in summer. In most places in Ethiopia, the highest temperatures are experienced between March and September as this is the high sun period.

As the relative position of the sun shifts, southern Ethiopia has its highest temperatures in autumn and spring when the sun is vertically overhead (Kelafo, Gode and Awasa).

However, some deviations need to be considered. Summer being the big rainy season, temperature is reduced considerably in the southern and southwestern parts where humidity is high and cloud cover frequent.

In these places, the highest temperatures are experienced at other periods than when the sun is overhead, or even during the low sun period (Sodo in February and Dila in January).

The position of slopes in relation to the direction of rain bearing winds, (leeward or windward side), is also another consideration for this variation, as is aspect in determining temperature variations in mountainous regions.

(Source: National Atlas of Ethiopia)

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