This study analyses the long‐term (1950–2100) observed and projected changes in springtime (March–May) heat waves (HWs) in West Africa under climate change. To that end, 28 climate models participating to the fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) are considered, after a statistical post‐correction of their biases. A multi‐scale approach is proposed, covering the Sahel, Senegal, and three thermally‐coherent zones...

Future climate changes in African regions are model‐dependent and there is no consensus regarding Sahelian rainfall by the end of this century. Using 12 atmosphere‐ocean global climate models of the third Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP3) we propose a multi‐model (MM) analysis contrasting the 1960–1999 period (20c3m integration) and the 2031–2070 period (A1B emission scenario). The analyses are based on MM response...

This article focuses on some recent changes observed in the Tropics with special emphasis on the African monsoon region using high‐resolution gridded precipitation from the Climatic Research Unit (period 1979–2002), outgoing longwave radiation at the top of the atmosphere from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and atmospheric reanalyses from the Climate Prediction Center (NCEP‐DOE2, period 1979–2007). The res...

The monsoon onset is documented in terms of latitudinal shift of deep convection areas within the ITCZ using an interpolated version of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) at a 5‐day time‐step over West Africa for the period 1979–2004. Signals in moist convection derived from OLR values lower than 180 W/m2 allow better determination of onset dates (ODs) than the use of o...