Long Rains begin

Here is an out-the-car-window shot of Kilimanjaro from 21 March (courtesy Michael Winkler, Innsbruck Univ.), with a mantle of fresh snow. Michael departed from a snow-free crater on the 19th. By the 21st, my telemetry data from the Northern Ice Field does not indicate accumulation (cf. this south-side view), suggesting that snowfall was primarily on the south side. This asymetry is typical of snowfall during the Long Rains (March-May). However, appreciable snowfall on the Northern Ice Field did begin in the evening of the 22nd and continued at least into the 23rd; additional smaller events continued sporatically up to today. On the 27th, Timba from Ahsante Tours & Safaris wrote that in Moshi it was "pouring big time" and that the "mountain has been on an all time white look since last week." He says that "the SE prevailing winds have begun" and the long rainy season is in "full swing."

Long Rains beginning?

After a brief dry interval, telemetry shows that snowfall is again occurring at the summit of Kilimanjaro. Could we be seeing the beginning of the "Long Rains"? Contributor Timba at Ahsante Tours & Safaris writes of "heavy rains in Moshi and surrounding areas yesterday. In town [and on the mountain], it rained the whole afternoon to early evening."  Timba suggests that the normal long rain pattern is for morning rain in Dar es Salaam, followed by afternoon and evening rain in the Kilimanjaro region, but his friend in Dar saw no rain yesterday. Stay tuned.

Ten Years!

Here we are, exactly 10 years ago this morning, after installing the AWS on Kibo's Northern Ice Field (1300 UTC or 8 am EST, 24 February 2000). Hard to believe it has been that long -- or that it function so reliably. Thanks to everyone involved in keeping the measurements going!

Kilimanjaro from space

Kibo (left) and Mawenzi (right) from the International Space Station on 21 January at ~10am (click to see larger). Note convective clouds just beginning to form to the southwest, as happens daily at this time. Although the crater is snow-free, considerable snowcover is visible on the north side of Kibo; only the brightest-white areas are glacier ice. [Image ISS022-E-33592, courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center]

"Current weather" update

Shortly after the first of each month we provide a synopsis of current conditions at the summit, based upon data received by telemetry and processed in the UMass Climate System Research Center. However, we have been without a programmer to run the scripts since mid-December, and apologize to those who look forward to these updates.

The most recent data were accessed today, and the station looks to be working well. Here is what the partial recovery indicates:  from 1 December until mid-January, net snowfall amounted to at least 22 cm. If we can obtain early January data from the Argos archive, it may show the total to be even higher. For the entire "short rain" period, net snowfall was at least 46 cm, which is not a record but certainly above average.

Hopefully a synopsis for February can be posted on 1 or 2 March.

Rains continue to the West

Here are a couple notes about rainfall to the west of Kilimanjaro; seems like the short rains have been quite good!

Dec. 28th (Marc Baker):  "Just back from the wettest Serengeti in 10 years, first time I have had to abandon two vehicles after two days of constant rain in Piaya."

Jan. 2nd (Jo via Neil Baker) summary of Serengeti and Ngorogoro lakes:
  Lake Magadi ngng - full
  Malanja depression - filling fast
  Olbalbal depression- full and overflowing
  Lake Manyara - filling fast
  Engaruka depression - nearly full

[UPDATE 1/6 (from David Bygott):  Lake Natron also full, raining heavily in Zanzibar]
[UPDATE 1/7 (from Chris Schmeling):  Lake Eyasi close to full; 88mm precip. already this month]

AGU award to Thomas Mölg!

Congratulations to Dr. Mölg on receipt yesterday of AGU's 2009 Young Investigator Award. Thomas has been an invaluable Kilimanjaro collaborator since July 2002, when he joined Ray Bradley and myself on the mountain. Details of Thomas' selection, his bio and publications are here (along with a link to award ceremony video).

-Doug Hardy, UMass Geosciences