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.