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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nScientists have said that a dry<\/a> climate, rising temperatures of 0.5\u00baC to 0.8\u00baC<\/a> between 1901 and 2005 and less snow have contributed to Kilimanjaro’s 11,700-year-old glacier<\/a> disappearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the main reason for Kilimanjaro’s glacier retreat is solar radiation<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1880, Kilimanjaro’s glacier-covered a 20km2<\/sup> area. By 2016, this area had decreased to 1.7km2<\/sup><\/a> area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Melting](\"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/09\/Outlier-Chart-2-600x600.png\")
Melting away<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Scientists have said most of Kilimanjaro’s glaciers disappeared around the 1950s because of changes in their mass balance \u2013 in short, when there is not enough snow to counteract melting or sublimation (when ice changes from a solid to a gas form).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kilimanjaro’s glacier has steep vertical walls on the southeast side, which face a cloudless sky, where the sun’s radiation turns the ice into gas or melts the steep glacier. More snowfall could help Kilimanjaro’s glaciers, but there would need to be enough snow during the wet season to cover the mountaintop until the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And although some climate models suggest increased cyclones near East Africa \u2013 which would cause more snow to fall on Kilimanjaro during the wet season \u2013 it won\u2019t be nearly enough to hold off Kilimanjaro\u2019s sublimation, historical climate and weather professor Stefan Grab from the University of the Witwatersrand explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/09\/Kili-4-Sept-2022.jpg\")
In a satellite photograph of Kilimanjaro on 4 September 2022, the blue dot represents ice and snow on the mountain. (Supplied Prof Stefan Grab\/Wits University)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n The World Meteorological Organisation<\/a> has said that Kilimanjaro will be glacier-less by 2040, along with the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda and Mount Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what does this mean for future hikers summiting Kilimanjaro? Yes, there will be less snow and rain and the glaciers won\u2019t be there forever, but the climb will be drier<\/a> for large parts of the year \u2013 making it easier to summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tropical Glaciers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori mountains are not the only tropical glaciers experiencing glacial retreat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indonesia\u2019s Papua Glaciers<\/a> decreased from 19km2<\/sup> in 1850 to 0.34km2<\/sup> in 2020. Scientists attributed the rapid rate of ice loss to the 2015-2016 El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> and rising regional temperatures. The Papua Glaciers are the only glaciers in the West Pacific, and are projected to disappear at the end of the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tibetan plateau \u2013 home to the Himalayas \u2013 has a 100,000km2<\/sup> of glaciers \u2013 a vital resource for fresh water. The World Meteorological Organisation<\/a> has projected that the glaciers will recede by 20% to 40% by 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Andes Mountain<\/a> range extends from Venezuela down the western flank of South America to Chile and Argentina, covering an area of 1,767 km2<\/sup><\/a>. The Andes\u2019 glaciers are a source of fresh water and power supply. Because of the length of the mountain range, the glaciers retreated between 20% to 30%<\/a> since 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Alps<\/a> \u2013 which stretch 1,000km from France to Austria \u2013 the Pyrenees<\/a> \u2013 which border France and Spain \u2013 and the Caucasus mountain range<\/a> \u2013 between Georgia and Russia \u2013 have experienced a glacial retreat<\/a> from warming temperatures over the past two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Methodology<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
*I chose to focus on July for this project on Kilimanjaro as July is the first month following the wet season (from March to mid-June), and the temperature is generally colder in July than in August or September. July is also the month that Trek for Mandela happens \u2013 an annual summit to the top of Kilimanjaro on 18 July \u2013 the birthday of former South African president Nelson Mandela. By focusing on this month, I knew that when I searched Twitter, I would find photographs of climbers from this group posing at the signpost for Uhuru Peak \u2013 the tallest part of Kilimanjaro. I do not have data for 2020 because global Covid-19 lockdowns restricted people from travelling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The mountain\u2019s glaciers have a few more years before they are gone. Scientists say sun radiation, too little snow and rising temperatures all contribute to their disappearance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,446,1387],"tags":[159,195,132,196,197],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-83369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-news","category-the-outlier","tag-climate-change","tag-glacier","tag-kenya","tag-kilimanjaro","tag-tanzania"],"acf":{"big_number":null,"big_number_caption":null,"big_number_link":null,"big_number_background":null,"big_number_text_colour":null,"big_number_icon":null,"big_number_wide":null,"featured_chart":null,"flourish_chart_id":null,"flourish_sub_title":null,"flourish_chart_width":null,"is_newsletter_post":null,"post_style":null,"show_on_front":null,"link_through":null,"chart_url":null,"background_colour":null,"text_colour":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86600,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83369\/revisions\/86600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83369"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=83369"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=83369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}