Is Africa really hot?

When it comes to the weather in Africa, it is estimated that many people think of high temperature and heat waves first. People living there are even thought to spend summer all year round, so they have dark skin. However, in the past two years, there have been news on the Internet that black students from Africa have returned to China for the summer because they can't stand the high temperature in China. Is China hotter than Africa?

With 9.6 million square kilometers, China is the third largest country in the world. Africa has 3.2 million square kilometers, making it the second largest continent in the world. Both regions have mountains, plains, plateaus, deserts, basins and other landforms. Naturally, the climate cannot be generalized, but should be analyzed in detail.

Sahara Desert

Most of the time, the temperature we feel is not directly from the sun, but from the air above the surface. The earth absorbs the heat from the sun and radiates it into the air from bottom to top through the surface. Therefore, the higher the altitude, the less heat you get. Although the African continent has different landforms, most areas are dominated by plateaus, ranging from 8 to 1 meters above sea level. It is called "Plateau continent", and the air contains less heat, so it naturally doesn't feel so hot. For example, the summer temperature in Ethiopia usually does not exceed 28℃. The top of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain, is covered with snow all year round, and the degree of cold even exceeds that of northeast China.

However, some areas in China, such as Wuhan, are affected by climate and monsoon. In summer, they are usually covered under the subtropical high pressure zone, and the air humidity is high. In addition, it is located in the Yangtze River basin, surrounded by mountains, and the heat dissipation speed is slow. The air humidity is high, and it is not easy to dissipate heat. The sweat discharged by the human body evaporates slowly, so that the body always feels wet, which is of course very uncomfortable.

Of course, due to the scarcity of vegetation, the shortage of water resources and the serious shortage of rainfall, those African regions located in the Sahara desert are still relatively hot. At present, the hottest region recorded is Azizia, Libya, where the temperature reached 57.8℃ on September 13th, 1922.