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Malawi, a landlocked country in southeast Africa, why is it foggy in winter and half a year?

author:Geography salon

Malawi is a landlocked country located in southeastern Africa, belonging to the East African region, and the territory of Malawi is distributed in a narrow strip of north and south, adjacent to Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. Malawi has an area of about 118,000 square kilometers, slightly larger than the mainland Jiangsu Province, with a total population of about 17.6 million people, and the capital is Lilongwe. Malawi is one of the least developed countries in the world, with an economy dominated by agriculture and the production of tropical cash crops.

Malawi, a landlocked country in southeast Africa, why is it foggy in winter and half a year?

Why is Malawi foggy in winter?

Malawi is an abbreviation for the Republic of Malawi, and its national name comes from the territory of Lake Malawi, which is the third largest lake in Africa with a total area of about 29,600 square kilometers. Located in the southern part of the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, Lake Malawi is a tectonic lake formed by the collapse of rock formation faults caused by plate tension cracks, with an average depth of 292 meters, the deepest point is in the northern part of the lake, reaching a depth of 704 meters, and there are 14 rivers with water all year round flowing into Lake Malawi.

Malawi, a landlocked country in southeast Africa, why is it foggy in winter and half a year?

Location map of Malawi and Lake Malawi

Malawi is generally located on the west bank of Lake Malawi, and the areas along the lake are beautiful, some places are surrounded by high cliffs, the waves crash on the shore, and in some places, the grasslands are babbling, and the lakes and mountains are beautiful. After we have introduced the basic situation of Malawi and Lake Malawi, we can explain why Malawi has a foggy weather in the winter and half of the year. From the perspective of the formation conditions of fog, there are usually two basic conditions, the first condition is that there is a need for sufficient water vapor, and the second condition is that there needs to be a suitable cooling condition, so that the water vapor can condense into fog, if you add static wind conditions, then the fog duration will be longer.

Malawi, a landlocked country in southeast Africa, why is it foggy in winter and half a year?

Lake Malawi

First of all, we look at the foggy water vapor conditions, Malawi is a landlocked country, relatively far from the ocean, so the huge Lake Malawi is the most important source of water vapor. The evaporation of lake water in Malawi lake is the source of water vapor that forms fog, but in general, the temperature is lower in the winter season, will it make the lake evaporate less? In fact, no, we know that Lake Malawi is located in a tropical region, which can be said to be a year-round high temperature, and the surface water temperature of the lake is between 24 ° C and 29 ° C all year round.

Malawi, a landlocked country in southeast Africa, why is it foggy in winter and half a year?

Lake Malawi and southeast trade winds

And because the winter is the dry season in the area where Lake Malawi is located, there is less precipitation, more sunny weather, strong solar radiation, and strong evaporation of the lake, which makes the atmosphere very rich in water vapor. However, Malawi is located in the west coast of Malawi and needs to have the motivation to bring water vapor to the Malawi region, so this power is mainly to control the southeast trade winds in this area in the winter half of the year, and the southeast trade winds bring the water vapor above the lake from east to west to Malawi.

Malawi, a landlocked country in southeast Africa, why is it foggy in winter and half a year?

Fog

Second, we have to find cooling conditions so that water vapor can cool and condense to form a fog. There are two main cooling conditions here, on the one hand, the terrain factors, Malawi's overall terrain is high in the west and low in the east, and the southeast trade wind carries water vapor to the west, and as the terrain rises, it continues to cool and condense, forming fog. On the other hand, the radiation cooling factor, because the winter half is the local dry season, more sunny weather, so the temperature difference between day and night is large, the radiation cooling amplitude at night is large, and the water vapor is easy to condense to form fog. In addition, Malawi's complex topographical conditions hinder the southeast trade winds, making it difficult for the fog to dissipate.

Malawi, a landlocked country in southeast Africa, why is it foggy in winter and half a year?

The Mountains of Malawi

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