West Region	East Region

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From April 21 - 30, 2013, the ITF continued its northward progress, with an above-average position across a wide portion of central Africa, but below-average location along the edge. In the west, enhanced southwesterly winds associated with the poleward flank of a broad anomalous low-level cyclonic circulation over North Africa initiated convection and resulted in isolated heavy rain over central Niger. The mean western portion of the ITF approximated 14.1 degrees north, which was 0.8 degrees above the mean position. To the east, strong southerlies also enhanced low-level convergence and brought light to moderate rain over southeastern Chad. The mean eastern portion of the ITF was located near 11.1 degrees north and led the average position by 0.2 degree. Figure 1 shows the current ITF position relative to the climatological average for the third dekad of April and its previous position during the second dekad of April. Figure 2 and 3 are time series, illustrating the latitudinal mean of the western and eastern portion of the ITF, respectively, and their evolutions since the start of April.

Dekad	15W	10W	5W	0	5E	10E	15E	20E	25E	30E	35E
April 1	11.2	12.0	12.0	12.9	13.3	10.9	9.5	9.6	7.2	6.2	7.6
April 2	10.0	10.9	12.9	15.1	14.4	10.7	8.6	10.0	8.4	8.1	8.6
April 3	8.4	11.1	13.8	15.1	15.7	14.6	12.2	13.6	11.2	9.8	10.0