Climate on Kilimanjaro

When is the best time to climb Kilimanjaro?

The most favourable times are the warmest and driest months - January, February, and September. June, July, and August are also good months. However, temperatures and weather are less predictable. It is better to avoid the long rains, from the end of March to early June, and the short (or Mango) rains (from the end of November to the start of December.

The Weather

The weather on Kilimanjaro is diverse. The climb starts through a wide belt of wet tropical forest then goes through zones with generally decreasing temperatures and rainfall to the summit where there is permanent ice and sub-zero temperatures.

Within a few Kilometers, conditions vary from equatorial to arctic. In general temperature decreases about 1 Degree Celsius for every 200m increase in altitude. The belt of dense forests around the lower slopes, from 1800m to 2800m, benefits from a wet tropical climate, characterized by the high average of rainfall. Continuing upwards the vegetation drastically decreases and finally disappears. This is because it is colder and dryer.

January, February and March are the hottest months, fairly clear of clouds and with only brief rain showers, followed by the main rainy season, which lasts from the beginning of April to mid-June. The temperature is still high but huge clouds restrict visibility. Dense cloud formations mass over Kilimanjaro, dropping snow on the summit and heavy rain on the lower slopes.

The driest season follows and by late June, through July and August it is usually extremely cold at night with a clear sky is above 3000m. It gets progressively warmer between September and the end of October, when daytime is often clear. A belt of precipitating clouds usually girdles the whole of Kilimanjaro above the forest band, leaving the summit clear.

The short rains last from November to December, when afternoon thunderstorms are common. The clouds will disappear in the evening leaving an excellent visibility during nights and mornings.

Is global warming affecting Kilimanjaro? Ice cover has reduced by 90% the but the buildup of greenhouse gases from cars etc is not the cause.

"Kilimanjaro is a grossly overused mis-example of the effects of climate change," said University of Washington climate scientist Philip Mote in the July/August issue of the American Scientist magazine.

He adds that global warming is responsible for the fact that nearly every other glacier around the globe is melting, however Kilimanjaro just happens to be the worst possible case study.

Rising nearly four miles from the plains of eastern Tanzania, Kilimanjaro has seen its glaciers reduce consistently for well over a century — since long before humans began pumping large volumes of pollutants into the atmosphere. Most glaciers didn't begin their rapid declines until around the 1970s, when discernible global warming first appeared.

Kilimanjaro's temperatures on the summit never rise above freezing. So melting caused by a warmer atmosphere can't be the reason the summit ice sheet is retreating about 3 feet a year, said Georg Kaser, glaciologist at the University of Innsbruck.

Most glaciers in temperate zones, like those on Mount Rainier, extend to lower elevations where their terminus is warmed to the melting point in summer.

On Kilimanjaro, ice loss is caused by two factors: a lack of snowfall and sublimation.

Sublimation, caused by exposure to sunlight and dry air, occurs when ice essentially skips the melting step and evaporates.

The ice on Kilimanjaro shows no evidence that melting is anything but an insignificant force. The cliffs and pinnacles of ice are not softened around the edges.

It is also possible climate change may play a role in droughts that have starved Kilimanjaro of snow, though that pattern was established before the planet began to warm significantly.
For more information on climbing Kilimanjaro or visiting Tanzania's mountains click Climb Kilimanjaro with Mountain Kingdom Safaris

Roy J Hinde M.Sc. is a former research scientist who now is a director of Wild Things Safaris Ltd and runs the marketing for MK safaris Climb Kilimanjaro.