In this regard, reports have been undertaken to explore the Sudan's natural resources and the implementation of programs and policies to improve its environmental situation. These efforts remain fragmentary, at best, with only a council being established to bring such measures to fruition. Sandstorms blow across the Sahara from April to September. In the extreme north there is little rain but the central region has some rainfall from July to August. The southern region has much higher rainfall, the wet season lasting May to October.
Summers are very hot throughout the country, while winters are cooler in the north.
The Nile system provides irrigation for strips of agricultural settlement for much of its course in Sudan and also for the Al Gezira plain, situated between the White Nile and the Blue Nile, just south of their confluence at Khartoum. In the extreme north, the Nile broadens into Lake Nasser, formed by the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. Much of the rest of the country is made up of an undulating plateau, which rises to higher levels in the mountains located in the northeast near the Red Sea, as well as in the central, western, and extreme southern portions of the country. The highest point in Sudan is Kinyeti in the southeast. Sudan is divided into 26 states.