CLIMATE AND VEGETATION

Tanzania lies on the east coast of east Africa and is bordered by Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi DR Congo, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. The country lies just south of the equator. Tanzania is divided in several defined regions; tropical plains, coastal plains, maasai steppe. Savannah and bush cover half of the country. The remaining land is covered by semi desert and coastal lands

Much of the country is covered by a plateau, in which a large number of world-famous tourist attractions are found, with several parks and nature reserves, in the savannah environment. This plateau has a tropical climate, warm but not too hot because of altitude. On the contrary, the thin coastal stretch is hot and humid throughout the year, especially from November to April.

As regards the rain pattern, the country can be divided into four zones. In the north and east, except the region of Lake Victoria, there are two rainy seasons: one less intense, known as short rains season, between October and December, and the other more intense, known as long rains season, from March to May, with the peak in April. In January and February, in the period between the two rainy seasons, the weather is hot and sultry, at least below 1000 metres. In the far north-west, the two rainy seasons are practically connected, because it rains even in January and February, when rainfall amounts to 100/150 millimetres per month, depending on the area: therefore in this region in practice there is a single rainy season from October to May. Such a situation can be found occasionally also in some areas of the north-east, in particular along the southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. In the centre and south, there’s only one rainy season, from December to April in the south and south-east, and from November to April in the west.