🇨🇻Cape Verde

Cape Verde spans 14°48′–17°12′N as a volcanic archipelago of ten islands (~570 km off the West African coast) split into two groups: Barlavento (windward: Santo Antão, São Vicente, São Nicolau, Sal, Boa Vista, Santa Luzia) and Sotavento (leeward: Maio, Santiago, Fogo, Brava). The active Pico do Fogo stratovolcano rises to 2,829 m.

A mostly hot desert (BWh) climate prevails in the lowlands, driest on the eastern flats of Sal and Boa Vista, with semi-arid conditions at higher elevations, modulated by the cool Canary Current and persistent NE trade winds. The windward mountain slopes of Santo Antão and Santiago are wetter in the high cloud belt.

Praia on Santiago sees January highs of 27°C and lows of 20°C and August highs of about 31°C with only about 175 mm rainfall, almost entirely in a brief August–October West African monsoon-fringe pulse. Sal is even drier (~70 mm). The high windward slopes of Santo Antão (Cova de Paúl, ~1,200–1,500 m) capture trade-wind moisture and are much wetter than the lowlands. Fogo erupted in 1995 and 2014, displacing villages. Recurrent multi-year droughts have driven historic outmigration.

The Saharan harmattan (Bruma seca) delivers heavy dust haze in winter. Tropical waves and rare hurricanes occasionally graze the islands (Hurricane Fred 2015, the first hurricane to move through the islands since 1892). Coastal erosion and freshwater scarcity intensify with warming.

Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 0.6°C.