West Region	East Region

Latest Text Summary

From September 11-20, 2013, the ITF remained displaced to the north of climatology across parts of West Africa while it continued its equatorward advance over eastern Africa. The mean western portion of the ITF (10W-10E) was located approximately at 17.8 degrees north, which was 0.1 degrees north of the mean climatological position and 1.6 degrees south of the previous dekads position. This dekad marked a sharp equatorward advance of the ITF across West Africa. Although, the ITF remained to the north of the climatological position from 5W-5E, resulting in above average rain in Mali. The mean eastern portion of the ITF (20E-35E) was located approximately at 15.1 degrees North, which was 0.4 degrees south of the mean climatological position. This was the first dekad in the previous five to have the ITF located south of the mean climatological position. Figure 1 shows the current ITF position relative to its long-term average position during the second dekad of September and its previous position during the first dekad of September. Figures 2 and 3 are time series, illustrating the mean latitudinal values of the western and eastern portion of the ITF, respectively, and their evolutions since April, 2013.

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
May 1	11.9	13.5	13.7	14.8	15.6	12.2	12.3	13.5	12.5	12.0	12.1
May 2	14.8	14.3	16.2	16.5	15.1	12.2	13.4	12.5	10.7	11.5	13.3
May 3	13.9	13.9	15.1	15.9	15.6	14.3	13.9	13.6	11.8	12.5	14.2
June 1	15.5	15.2	16.7	15.8	15.5	14.3	14.2	13.8	13.4	14.0	14.9
June 2	15.9	15.9	16.7	16.9	16.0	14.2	13.8	13.3	13.0	13.2	14.6
June 3	16.2	16.7	17.8	18.8	18.6	17.3	17.0	16.5	15.4	15.1	16.0
July 1	17.4	17.2	18.7	20.2	18.7	17.4	16.3	15.1	14.7	13.4	14.8
July 2	18.0	18.8	19.6	19.1	17.9	17.3	16.3	15.7	15.0	15.1	16.8
July 3	18.4	19.3	19.3	20.0	18.9	17.5	17.3	16.4	15.9	16.5	17.5
August 1	19.2	20.0	20.1	21.2	21.3	18.7	18.8	19.2	18.9	20.0	20.8
August 2	19.7	20.3	21.0	21.5	20.5	18.9	19.1	17.8	16.6	17.7	18.9
August 3	19.1	19.6	20.7	20.9	20.4	19.5	18.0	17.2	15.9	16.9	18.0
September 1	19.0	19.9	20.3	19.7	19.2	18.1	17.0	16.2	15.3	15.7	18.0
September 2	17.7	17.9	18.5	19.1	18.3	15.3	14.8	14.3	13.8	15.1	17.2