Recently, ice cores covering the last 10,000 years have been recovered from Mt. Kilimanjaro. Past studies have suggested that East African precipitation is primarily driven by local-scale processes rather than large-scale atmospheric circulation. Interestingly, the changes seen in the Kilimanjaro... Show moreRecently, ice cores covering the last 10,000 years have been recovered from Mt. Kilimanjaro. Past studies have suggested that East African precipitation is primarily driven by local-scale processes rather than large-scale atmospheric circulation. Interestingly, the changes seen in the Kilimanjaro ice cores resemble closely other climatic records from a large area in Africa as well as the Indian monsoon areas. So far, studies are further complicated by the lack of in situ data. To advance the understanding of modern East African climate, this study focused on new station data directly from the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. First, these local measurements were compared with NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data to verify the usefulness of the global reanalysis in this particular region. Overall, the correspondence was reasonably good, opening the possibility for future studies to expand the time frame over the past 50 years. Second, the use of both data sets allowed for an examination of the commonalities of precipitation events during the âlong rainsâ season (February-May) in 2001-2004 on Mt. Kilimanjaro and identified the key precipitation-causing processes. Results suggest that Kilimanjaro precipitation is related to strong convective activity over the Indian Ocean near Madagascar accompanied with anomalous airflow towards the continent where strong rising motion is responsible for the precipitation. In addition, the Indian Ocean appears to be the dominant source of moisture for Mt. Kilimanjaro snowfall. These findings provide a preliminary interpretation of the governing processes that control precipitation events on Mt. Kilimanjaro, which contributes to a better understanding of current regional climate and aids in an improved interpretation of paleoclimatic records. Show less
