Latest Text Summary

During the period from October 21 - 31, 2008, the African portion of the Intertropical Front (ITF) was located at around 11.2 degrees north latitude, compared to the mean of 12.4. This is approximately a 1.9 degree drop from last dekad, and marks the second consecutive dekad where the ITF was south of its normal position for that dekad. Figure 1 displays the current position compared to normal, with the ITF moving rapidly southward from its position last dekad across the continent. The ITF is now slightly south of average across all of Africa. The ITF is positioned at 11.7 degrees north in the west and 10.9 degrees north in the east. Compared with the 1979-2007 mean of around 13.0 degrees north in the west, and a normal position of around 11.5 degrees north in the east. This is the final ITF update for this season. Monitoring will resume the first dekad of April 2009.

2008 10-Day Mean ITCZ Position

	15W	10W	5W	0	5E	10E	15E	20E	25E	30E	35E
April 1-10	10.1	10.6	10.3	10.5	10.3	10.7	10.7	10.6	10.3	10.3	10.7
April 11-20	10.9	13.0	13.2	12.8	11.3	10.7	10.5	11.3	11.2	11.6	13.4
April 21-30	13.9	13.5	13.5	12.8	14.1	13.3	12.5	12.3	12.1	13.9	15.4
May 1-10	11.4	13.7	14.3	14.3	13.6	12.4	12.6	12.2	11.4	11.2	11.1
May 11-20	10.6	13.1	13.9	14.3	14.0	13.9	13.6	12.6	12.3	12.4	13.5
May 21-31	12.9	13.4	14.0	14.9	14.6	14.5	14.0	13.4	13.4	13.5	13.8
June 1-10	13.6	14.1	15.0	15.8	15.3	14.6	14.2	13.3	12.8	13.3	15.2
June 11-20	13.3	14.5	15.3	15.9	15.4	15.0	14.6	13.5	13.0	14.0	15.0
June 21-30	16.7	16.7	17.4	17.1	16.6	15.8	15.0	14.3	14.4	14.8	15.3
July 1-10	16.6	17.2	17.1	17.3	17.1	16.1	15.2	14.6	14.4	14.7	15.5
July 11-20	16.9	17.0	18.2	18.1	17.5	17.0	16.8	16.3	15.2	15.4	16.9
July 21-31	19.5	20.1	19.9	19.6	19.1	18.7	16.6	16.1	16.3	17.2	16.9
August 1-10	19.6	19.3	19.4	19.6	19.0	18.8	18.7	17.3	16.6	17.2	17.9
August 11-20	20.0	20.7	21.1	20.8	20.1	19.6	19.4	17.3	16.0	16.8	18.2
August 21-31	19.9	20.7	20.8	20.5	19.3	18.1	17.2	16.3	16.0	16.5	17.9
September 1-10	17.5	18.8	19.8	19.4	17.8	16.6	16.4	16.3	16.7	17.9	18.8
September 11-20	18.3	18.8	19.5	19.7	18.2	17.0	16.2	15.4	15.0	15.7	17.2
September 21-30	16.8	17.9	18.5	18.5	16.6	15.1	14.9	14.6	14.4	15.3	16.6
October 1-10	16.5	17.0	16.7	15.9	15.7	14.9	14.9	14.8	14.8	14.8	15.2
October 11-20	13.6	14.4	14.6	14.6	13.6	12.2	11.4	11.3	11.4	12.9	14.3
October 21-31	11.9	12.9	13.5	12.3	10.6	9.3	9.6	10.2	10.3	9.7	13.4