Weather Archive
Global Warming Hits Safaris
Posted by jimheck in Planning Travel, Weather on August 17, 2010
A year ago we were waiting anxiously for the droughts across Africa to subside. Today the place is flooded.
Extreme climate is nothing new to Africa. But I’m ready to call it a reflection of global warming. And I think it should govern all plans for future safari travel.
I’m writing this as Pakistan [...]
Drought Ends Maasai Culture?
A remarkable study released yesterday by wildlife experts in East Africa that details the effects of the 2007-2009 drought unintentionally and benignly predicts the end of Maasai culture.
Reading way between the numbers of surviving zebra and elephant, I see an imminent end to Maasai pastoralism, the foundation of Maasai culture.
But first to the survey itself, [...]
What Do Mudslides in Uganda and Riots in Nigeria Have in Common?
By Conor Godfrey
Last week mudslides in Uganda buried hundreds. Flash floods destroyed lives in Kenya, and deadly riots claimed the lives of 500+ people in Nigeria.
Why do these belong in the same category? In each case lives and livelihoods were lost to environmental degradation.
In the struggle to make people and policy-makers care [...]
Back on (a wet) Track!
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Great Migration, Serengeti, Weather on January 19, 2010
As we enter the great migration season in Tanzania everyone ready to go (including me) wants to know the state of the veld. Well – dare I suggest it? – it looks… wonderful.
I wanted to say “normal” but normal doesn’t exist, anymore, in these confused eras of global warming. But frankly that’s what [...]
What are the Heavens doing?
Posted by jimheck in Weather, Wildlife Management on January 12, 2010
Wildlife people are happy, social activists are alarmed, and the poor Turkana people believe it’s the end of the earth. El-Nino’s floods have blown up the drought.
From the Serengeti to Tarangire to Tsavo to Samburu to the Mara, the rains are tumbling down. And the last to report torrents – as was to [...]
Heavy Rain Pounds East Africa
As predicted very heavy rains are right now slamming East Africa.
And also as predicted, the prolonged three-year dry spell which preceded these downpours created horrible conditions for the areas now in flood. There was little vegetation left to hold things together, and massive erosion is occurring in certain areas.
The hardest hit ironically are areas [...]
Year-End Roundup & Predictions
Posted by jimheck in Corruption, Economy, Politics, Weather, Wildlife Management on December 31, 2009
2009 was a bad year for East Africa. 2010 will be a little bit better.
Socially, culturally and politically, I think it’s been a GOOD YEAR for Kenya and a BAD YEAR for its neighbors.
I’m positive on Kenya and critical of its neighbors even while supporting the western powers growing sanctions on Kenya for not [...]
Democracy vs. Famine?
Yesterday, USAid’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS) warned of a famine that could engulf about half of Kenya next May.
The sober report is not surprising given the three years of seriously reduced rainfall, the political turbulence of this period in Kenya, and Kenya’s growing population needs.
What remains surprising is how the local media uses [...]
The Rain is “normal”
Nairobi’s Daily Nation newspaper claimed Thursday that the drought was continuing. That the ground was parched; that crops were destroyed; that famine was everywhere. This burns me up.
Within a day, of course, media around the world picked up the story. I found it in the Zanesville, Ohio Times Register. My god is [...]
Weather Confusion: Rains aren’t Failing
KENYA RAINS CONFUSE ALL
Today Nairobi’s main newspaper reported that widespread famine will continue, because the short rains failed. This just isn’t true.
It is true that there remains widespread famine, and I reported earlier as to why that was the case: the entire system is so much more fragile than the last drought, the effects [...]
DELUGE ARRIVES
The predicted El-Nino rains are beating East Africa and reversing the drought completely, causing mayhem anew.
Nairobi’s Standard newspaper reports now that five people swept away by running waters have been confirmed killed throughout Kenya. Two major bridges, one linking the mainland with Lamu, has been swept away, and major roads into the north are [...]
DROUGHT TALLY
Posted by jimheck in Weather, Wildlife Management on October 23, 2009
Everyone wants a tally of the drought’s wildlife destruction now that it seems to be over. Here’s a start, temptingly premature.
Keep in mind that in a normal year we wouldn’t even be having rains yet over much of East Africa, and certainly not as heavy. And also keep in mind that the heavy [...]
CLIMATE NEWS
Heavy rains do seem to be arriving, dangerous wild fires close Arusha N.P., and African nations prepare for the Copenhagen Climate Change summit.
This evening at Larsen’s Camp in Samburu National Park, Jeremy told me that it had begun to rain over the park, and that the Ewaso Nyiro River had started flowing again five days [...]
Floods Coming?
East African governments are warning their citizens – many now in the devastation of a drought — that they should prepare for floods.
The Kenyan Meteorological Department has a mixed record of forecasting. In January, two months prior to the normal onset of the “Long Rains” in most of Kenya, it predicted they would be [...]
SAHARA RAIN
We were 3/4 through the journey to Nairobi. I looked out my window over the Sahara Desert… and watched a thunderstorm!
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Towering storms were forcing our 777 flying at 39,000′ to take little turns around them. Every once in a while, there was a break all the way [...]