Weather Archive
On Safari: Fatal Blow to Manyara
Global warming is devastating earth, and it ruined a day on safari and possibly ruined one of Tanzania’s best game parks for a long, long time. Worldwide weather is become more and more extreme. In East Africa we have more droughts that are drier and more floods that are heavier, and the frequency at which [...]
Weather Sandy or the Serengeti
The capacity for denial in America’s current lemming-like culture makes Africa seem like the real Super Power and we Midwesterners hoakies from Padokie. Super Storm Sandy = Global Warming. When will Americans learn? Four times weekly starting about 5 a.m. CDT I access the internet to write this blog. This morning, half my links are [...]
Delayed With Little Compensation!
Posted by jimheck in Great Migration, Weather on September 24, 2012
The great wildebeest migration just lost its Kenyan visa. Normally around a million wildebeest would still be in Kenya’s Maasai Mara at this time of the year. The Mara is the northernmost point in the 1200-mile roundtrip migration, an elliptical circuit that historically remains in the Mara from around July – October. Not this year. [...]
And on The Other Side
Posted by jimheck in South Africa, Weather on July 16, 2012
Weather you kill me or not, the world is spinning out of control. 3 dead in South Africa from heavy snow and cold; more than 100 die in my Midwest from heat. I’ve had a lot of fun in my career surprising people with the facts of weather in Africa. Most Americans grow up believing [...]
Derecho Doom
Posted by jimheck in Global Relations, Politics, Weather on July 3, 2012
The heat, fire, floods and storms are not normal; we did not evolve to live in this. Finally it’s hitting us the way Africans have been clobbered for years. Wake up! The Washington Post today had the courage to say it: This Is Global Warming. The meekness with which we morphed “global warming” into “climate [...]
Top Ten 2011 Africa Stories
Posted by jimheck in "Modern" Africa, African Awakening, Arts and Culture, Big Game, Botswana, Congo, Culture, Economy, Egypt, Environment, Nairobi, Perceptions of Africa, Poaching, Politics, Poverty, Refugees, Safety, Serengeti, South Africa, Sudan, Terrorism, Tourism Trends, Twevolution, Uganda, War, Weather, Wildlife Management, Zimbabwe on December 31, 2011
Twevolution, the Arab Spring [by Twitter] is universally considered the most important story of the year, much less just in Africa. But I believe the Kenyan invasion of Somalia will have as lasting an effect on Africa, so I’ve considered them both Number One. 1A: KENYA INVADES SOMALIA On October 18 Kenya invaded Somalia, where [...]
Bribed Enough To Die
Posted by jimheck in Environment, Weather on December 15, 2011
In the shorter runs Africa’s got a lot more to lose faster from global warming than us, but Africa leaders are hailing the specious agreement made in Durban this week. Why? Because they get more money. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se. As far as I’m concerned anything that redistributes global wealth is healthy [...]
Storms Move The Serengeti
Posted by jimheck in Ecology, Great Migration, Serengeti, Weather on December 2, 2011
Climate change is slowly, steadily changing the ecology of the world’s most spectacular big game wilderness, the Serengeti. For a visitor, it’s nothing short of fantastic. For animals it’s terrifying. For the planet it’s just too complicated yet to say. The roughly 7000 sq. miles of the Serengeti/Mara/Ngorongoro wilderness is the greatest wildlife area on [...]
Climate Changes Road
When something goes wrong, those with greater resources cope better. So it’s no surprise that Africans are the furious ones and the developed world’s citizens are the most complacent about climate change. Too bad rich tourists heading on safari: you’re about to experience it square on. I think practically everyone in the world will agree [...]
Our Most Brilliant Traveler
I sit here watching a miserable cold rainy day waiting for snow. Birds (and “sunbirds”) living here in the Midwest have all but gone. But one remarkable bird in southern Africa defies this classic “going and coming” in a most spectacular way! The southern carmine bee-eater is not only one of the grandest and most [...]
Back to Life Time!
Rains in Africa bring rebirth unlike anywhere else on earth. I don’t mean things just start to grow again. I mean dead things come back to life! Admittedly, most of these creatures are just fooling us to believe they’ve returned from the dark side. They aren’t really the same thing, but the children of things [...]
The Rains Have Come
The dry season is definitely over in all of East Africa, the rains have been heavier than usual almost everywhere, the plains are spectacularly green and even here half a world away I can hear the veld sighing relief. From Nairobi to Dar, the Serengeti to the Mara, Samburu to Tsavo, rain is falling and [...]
Umbrellas in the Dry Season
At home whether it’s raining or not doesn’t mean much. On safari it means a lot to me as the guide. What we do, when we do it, planned months ahead, is predicated on where and when it’s going to rain. That’s now near impossible with global warming. We were all having drinks tonight before [...]
Where is The Hand of God?
Texas droughts, Vermont floods, Manhattan hurricanes. Dadaab famine, Ewaso floods, Zanzibar typhoons. In America I expect we’ll muddle through and with luck and no feckless economy, we’ll figure it out. I’m not so certain about Africa. The effects of global warming on East Africa have been severe for the last 5-10 years. The weird way [...]
Rain No Gain Only Pain
Posted by jimheck in Economy, Foreign Aid, Poverty, Weather on August 2, 2011
Folks, it is drizzling near Dadaab. And it shouldn’t be. This is normally a dry season. We’ve got to understand again and again that this terrible famine is man made. It is not the work of God. Yesterday I listened and watched to report after report, including from Kenya itself, decrying the “60-year drought.” There [...]