Mapping Africa's Climate Extremes: Delineation of Thermal Equator Under Current and Future Climate Scenarios

The thermal equator, the latitudinal position of maximum mean annual surface temperature, represents a dynamic boundary in Earth's climate system. This study presents a high‐resolution, longitudinally segmented analysis of Africa's thermal equator using CHELSA V2.1 baseline data and downscaled CMIP6 projections under the SSP3‐7.0 scenario. I delineated the equator for 1981–2010, 2011–2040 and 2041–2070 and quantified shifts across longitudinal transects spaced at 0.5° intervals. Results show that under this scenario, by 2041–2070, thermal equator displacement is projected to exceed 300 km in several zones, with a mean latitudinal shift of 36.3 km. Hot spot analysis reveals that under the SSP3‐7.0 scenario, persistent high‐magnitude displacement clusters in Chad, with new hotspots projected to emerge in northeastern Central African Republic and central to southern Niger. Buffer‐based overlays show increasing intersection with bare land (+28%) and arid ecoregions, while overlap with mesic biomes declines. These patterns reflect intensifying thermal gradients and spatially uneven climate reorganisation. The study provides a replicable framework for tracking surface thermal maxima at sub‐continental scales and highlights emerging climate frontiers critical to ecosystem vulnerability, land degradation and regional adaptation planning.