République Démocratique du Congo

 In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), a huge country in central Africa, there are two kinds of climate:

• equatorial, hot and humid all year round with no dry season, in the central area crossed by the Equator and occupied by a vast rain forest (the second in the world after the Amazon);
• tropical, hot all year round but with a dry season, usually of short duration, in both the areas to the north and south of the Equator. The dry season occurs in opposite periods, from December to February (i.e. the boreal winter) north of the Equator and from June to September (i.e. the austral winter) south of the Equator.

The rains occur in the form of downpours or thunderstorms (actually, Congo is the country that receives the greatest number of lightning strikes in the world), usually in the afternoon, all year round in the equatorial zone, and in the long rainy season in the two tropical areas.

The amount of sunshine in much of the Democratic Republic of Congo is not very high because the strong solar radiation often causes cloudiness during the day, most likely by noon and in the afternoon. On the other hand, because of moisture evaporating from the ground, mists often occur in the early morning, while on the coast, fog and low clouds often form because of a cool sea current. The situation is different in the southernmost part (see Lubumbashi), where the dry season is more pronounced, and during the austral winter (May to September), the sky is often clear.

The country is largely occupied by the huge basin of the Congo River and its tributaries. Most of the country is located at an altitude between 300 and 800 meters, which are often sufficient to temper a bit the climate; in some areas, such as the southeast, the altitude is between 800 and 1,300 meters, while in the easternmost part, near the lakes of the Rift Valley, there are also high mountain ranges.