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Atmosphere
Special Issues
Precipitation in Africa (2nd Edition)
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Precipitation in Africa (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Meteorology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 27 November 2025 | Viewed by 474

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Isaac Nooni

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Atmospheric Science and Remote Sensing, Wuxi University, Wuxi 214105, China
Interests: land–atmosphere interactions; climate change; remote sensing, hydrological cycle; extreme events
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Daniel Fiifi Tawia Hagan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Hydro-Climate Extremes Lab, Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium
Interests: land–atmosphere interactions; remote sensing; hydrological cycle; climate modeling; hydrological modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. William Amponsah

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering/WASCAL Climate Change and Land Use Centre, College of Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
Interests: satellite remote sensing of precipitation; hydrological (extreme flood) modelling; forensic and statistical hydrometeorology; climate change; irrigation and agricultural water management
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Dr. Nana Agyemang Prempeh

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science, School of Geosciences, University of Energy and Natural Resources P.O. Box 214 Sunyani, Ghana
Interests: climate change; extreme events; climatology; climate modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Benjamin Lamptey

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
2. WASCAL, Center for Scientific and Industrial Research Secretariat Complex, Accra, Ghana
Interests: numerical weather prediction; climate modeling; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to launch the second edition of “Precipitation in Africa”.

Understanding the characteristics and processes of the water cycle (or hydrological cycle) are pivotal for improving our knowledge of climate systems. This continuous exercise is particularly important for essential climate variables such as precipitation.

In recent decades, the African continent has received more attention in climate change studies, with substantial achievements having been made regarding measuring and modelling African precipitation and water cycles. These recent achievements have also contributed to the surge in African climate databases obtained from multiple sources (i.e., remotely sensed, reanalysis, and modelled datasets), which is due to the relatively uneven and scarce ground measurement networks available. Such datasets have been instrumental in improving precipitation science in Africa. However, these datasets and their acquisition techniques are consistently being refined and improved to meet both research and application demands.

This Special Issue is focused on a broad definition of climatology. We would like to invite researchers to submit papers that present innovative approaches for characterizing precipitation and the water cycle in Africa.

These submissions should feature interdisciplinary scientific studies that cover (but are not limited to) a wide range of tropic evaluation and enhancement tools; data independency and multisource estimated uncertainties in the tropics are especially welcome. 

Dr. Isaac Nooni
Dr. Daniel Fiifi Tawia Hagan
Dr. William Amponsah
Dr. Nana Agyemang Prempeh
Dr. Benjamin Lamptey
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • hydrological cycle
  • precipitation
  • climatology
  • climate modeling

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

26 pages, 9032 KiB  
Article
Relative Humidity and Air Temperature Characteristics and Their Drivers in Africa Tropics
by Isaac Kwesi Nooni, Faustin Katchele Ogou, Abdoul Aziz Saidou Chaibou, Samuel Koranteng Fianko, Thomas Atta-Darkwa and Nana Agyemang Prempeh
Atmosphere 2025, 16(7), 828; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16070828 - 8 Jul 2025
Abstract
In a warming climate, rising temperature are expected to influence atmospheric humidity. This study examined the spatio-temporal dynamics of temperature (TEMP) and relative humidity (RH) across Equatorial Africa from 1980 to 2020. The analysis used RH data from European Centre of Medium-range Weather [...] Read more.
In a warming climate, rising temperature are expected to influence atmospheric humidity. This study examined the spatio-temporal dynamics of temperature (TEMP) and relative humidity (RH) across Equatorial Africa from 1980 to 2020. The analysis used RH data from European Centre of Medium-range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis v.5 (ERA5) reanalysis, TEMP and precipitation (PRE) from Climate Research Unit (CRU), and soil moisture (SM) and evapotranspiration (ET) from the Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM). In addition, four teleconnection indices were considered: El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). This study used the Mann–Kendall test and Sen’s slope estimator to analyze trends, alongside multiple linear regression to investigate the relationships between TEMP, RH, and key climatic variables—namely evapotranspiration (ET), soil moisture (SM), and precipitation (PRE)—as well as large-scale teleconnection indices (e.g., IOD, ENSO, PDO, and NAO) on annual and seasonal scales. The key findings are as follows: (1) mean annual TEMP exceeding 30 °C and RH less than 30% were concentrated in arid regions of the Sahelian–Sudano belt in West Africa (WAF), Central Africa (CAF) and North East Africa (NEAF). Semi-arid regions in the Sahelian–Guinean belt recorded moderate TEMP (25–30 °C) and RH (30–60%), while the Guinean coastal belt and Congo Basin experienced cooler, more humid conditions (TEMP < 20 °C, RH (60–90%). (2) Trend analysis using Mann–Kendal and Sen slope estimator analysis revealed spatial heterogeneity, with increasing TEMP and deceasing RH trends varying by region and season. (3) The warming rate was higher in arid and semi-arid areas, with seasonal rates exceeding annual averages (0.18 °C decade−1). Winter (0.27 °C decade−1) and spring (0.20 °C decade−1) exhibited the strongest warming, followed by autumn (0.18 °C decade−1) and summer (0.10 °C decade−1). (4) RH trends showed stronger seasonal decline compared to annual changes, with reduction ranging from 5 to 10% per decade in certain seasons, and about 2% per decade annually. (5) Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated a strong negative relationship between TEMP and RH with a correlation coefficient of r = − 0.60. (6) Significant associations were also observed between TEMP/RH and both climatic variables (ET, SM, PRE) and large scale-teleconnection indices (ENSO, IOD, PDO, NAO), indicating that surface conditions may reflect a combination of local response and remote climate influences. However, further analysis is needed to distinguish the extent to which local variability is independently driven versus being a response to large-scale forcing. Overall, this research highlights the physical mechanism linking TEMP and RH trends and their climatic drivers, offering insights into how these changes may impact different ecological and socio-economic sectors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precipitation in Africa (2nd Edition))
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