Extreme weather - Ghana Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
So, overall the weather wasn't too bad while I was there, you'd have your thunderstorms and what not, but there's two seasons, the rainy season and the dry season. At the end of the dry season, usually it's like one big snow storm, one big rain storm, and what it does is when it comes it picks up all the dust that the dry season has just created because it hasn't rained. So the first time we saw this one big rain storm, my companion and I were standing in our area and we see this like wall, it was like green and brown, and we're like, what is that? And we just watch it, we just watch it, and all the Ghanaians are like running around scrambling and we're like, what's going on? And then it gets like a street over and we realize what it is, and we're like, fetch! So we start running back to our apartment, we get caught in it, dust is flying everywhere, and it's just windy as heck, and yeah, we get to our apartment and it starts raining like a banshee, but wall of dust, watch out for those things.
Video 2 Transcript
It's hot. I mean like hot. You'll be sweating through multiple shirts a day probably. I mean eventually you'll probably stop caring, you won't change your shirt, but you'll get out of the shower, a cold shower, and you'll be sweating. You'll be walking down the street sweating. You'll be in an air-conditioned house and then you'll finally realize it's really cold in here because you've gotten so used to how ridiculously hot it is. And I mean it rains, it pours, there's a lot of lightning storms especially in some areas like Isinfusu, but I mean it'll still be hot and muggy and you just gotta prep for it. Eventually you'll stop caring about being sweaty, but like you just need to know that going in. It's going to be hot.
Video 3 Transcript
They have crazy storms. It's always super hot, but it'll go from super sunny to black skies and lightning quicker than you can believe it. And I'll tell you, the craziest weather I've seen is in the area of Simfosu. I was out there, I had lightning strike within a couple feet of me, a couple yards of me, just above my head about nine times within just a few weeks. And the lightning there is a lot louder than it is here. It was pretty terrifying.
Video 4 Transcript
Weather in Ghana is very regular. There aren't many natural disasters. There's not any severe weather. The biggest things that will happen is there will be rainstorms. If you serve in the northern parts of the country, you will have dust storms. It can be very hot in the summer, but people tend to stay out of the rain. They stay out of the cold. Well, they stay out of what they feel is cold. 670-80 degrees is cold for them, but I think that the weather will not give you any trouble. You don't need to bring rain gear, snow gear. You don't need to bring any of those heavier things, but if you'd like, you can bring an umbrella or a hat.
Video 5 Transcript
There's the harmatan, which is the dry season, which can range for about four or five months long, depending on where you're at, where it just gets a bunch of dust. And it's very difficult to keep your clothes clean because the dust will just get in the air and your lungs, you can cough a lot, you can get a cold from it, so you just gotta be ready for all that. And then during the rainy season, it downpours. You've got sometimes days that will be about eight to ten hours of rain that can lead to a total of six to eight inches easily in a matter of hours that can keep you from going outside, so be ready to get dumped on. It's a great place though, if you love the rain, you're going to absolutely love it.
Video 6 Transcript
So in Ghana when it rains it absolutely pours. I remember one of my first experiences, we could see the storm clouds coming when we were sitting under a mango tree teaching someone and so we ran back because our laundry was outside and then it just we ran back to our apartment and then it just started dumping like crazy and finally when it let off a little bit we were able to go outside and about five minutes after we got to the next appointment it just started dumping again and it was getting late it was around nine nine thirty and so we had to head back to the apartment and I just remember the thunder and lightning was insane and the dirt road we were walking on ended up just being a river. I remember just stepping on accident into a big hole and just you know got up past my knees in just water trying to get back to our apartment so the rain in Ghana is really really crazy.
Video 7 Transcript
On Christmas Eve, we were caroling and there was a gigantic sandstorm and it was kind of crazy because I've never experienced a sandstorm before. I've only seen, the only thing I've ever seen close to that is Aladdin, so it was a really interesting experience. Lots of sand, lots of rocks, really dry and yeah, it was crazy. You know that phrase, it's raining cats and dogs? You don't know rain until you've been to Africa, specifically Ghana. The biggest raindrops I've ever seen in my life. It was awesome.
Video 8 Transcript
There's something called hamatan, and that means that it's just super super dry, and so everywhere you go. It's just super dusty It'll get in your face. It'll get in your house. You have to clean it. Oh super bad
Video 9 Transcript
Ghana has the craziest weather, so bipolar. Like one minute it'll be so hot, not a cloud in the sky and then all of a sudden you'll see like this wall of clouds just like moving toward you ominously and like it'll be a sheet, just a straight sheet of rain coming toward you and you'll just start running away from it. You can literally outrun it for like a second and then it catches you. But I remember we'd sometimes we wouldn't have umbrellas on us because it was like a nice day when we left the house and we'd just take like big banana leaves and we'd just cover our head with banana leaves and we'd just run just trying to avoid the rain.
