Desertification and Its Control in Morocco - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 90

200 40

35
30 150

Fes

25
20
15
10
5
0

Average Monthly
Rainfall (mm)
Average Maximum
Temperature(°C)

100

50

0

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Average monthly rainfall and temperature of Fez (lat. 34 ı N and long. 5 ı W)

Fig. 5.2

Plateau, the Prerif zone and the Eastern part of the Rif mountain range. This
large spatial extension translates also into a large diversity of winter temperature
subtypes;

- Subhumid , with annual rainfall ranging from 600 to 800 mm, encountered within

the mountain ranges of the Rif, the Middle Atlas, the High Atlas and on localised
coastal area (Western Mamora cork oak forest). As in the previous type, the
winter subdivisions are also diverse;

- Humid , with annual rainfall greater than 800 mm within the Rif and the middle

Atlas mountains.

Rainfall is variable within seasons and between years. It occurs mostly in autumn
(October-November), winter (December) and spring (March-April) as shown for
Fez (Fig. 5.2 ) Mean annual rainfall (Fig. 5.3 ) ranges from less than 100 mm
(Saharan bioclimate), to 1,200 mm (humid bioclimate).
Extreme temperatures are attenuated in the coastal areas along the Atlantic Ocean
and the Mediterranean Sea, translating into bioclimate sub-types of warm and
temperate winters. By contrast, in the inland, the temperatures are more extreme
and winters can be quite cold (translating into bioclimate sub-types of temperate to
cold winters) and the summers very hot. In the mountain ranges temperatures can
drop to 0 ı F and highest mountain peaks in both the Atlas and Rif mountain ranges
are snow capped throughout most of the year.
Drought is the most important and dramatic manifestation of such variability.
The country witnessed the longest drought episode in its recent history (1979-1984,
most of the 1990s) causing impacts on agricultural production, on farm economics
and sustainability, on systems of production (for example, more concentrates are be-
ing incorporated into livestock feeding), and on natural resources and environment
(acceleration of degradation and resource depletion).
Over the last century there has been a decrease in rainfall throughout the
Mediterranean region. In summer, rainfall is now 20 % less than at the end of the
nineteenth century. In Tangiers, rainfall has dropped by 100 mm in 40 years and also
at Ifrane, in the Moyen-Atlas Mountains. Studies show that a reduction of 100 mm
i.e. 1 mm/year has taken place in many countries in the Mediterranean Basin. Since
the beginning of the twentieth century, Morocco had balanced phases of rainy and