Thursday, August 2, 2012

June & July weather

A summary of the previous month's weather at Kilimanjaro's summit is typically posted (here) within the first few days of each month. This year the June synopsis didn't make it in time, due to travel for other fieldwork. As usual though, the temperature fell slightly and the average humidity dropped relative to May, but two other reasons made the month noteworthy. First, June saw a net increase in the glacier surface height. Although the net change was only +4 cm, this was the first June in which accumulation was greater than ablation. In comparison - now that the dry season is underway - lowering during July amounted to ~16cm.

Also in June 2012, the daily maximum of incoming solar radiation was on average lower than in any month of the past 10 years. June irradiance is always relatively low of course, being at 3°S latitude, yet the new record this year is likely due to both greater cloud cover than normal - and to snow on the radiometer dome.

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