HISTORY OF CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA IN KENYA

The first climatic data was recorded at Mombasa town in the year 1890. The following year 1891 , another station was opened in Malindi town . Both stations are located along the shores of the IndianOcean. Three years later in 1894 , the first station not located along the shores of the Indian Ocean was opened at Machakos town. By 1904 there were rainfall observing stations at Makindu, Voi, Muranga, Kapsabet and Kisumu towns. All these stations were only observing and recording rainfall data. By 1920s records of other meteorological data like temperature , daily sunshine hours, cloud amounts and wind speed were being reported around Nairobi.

TYPES OF STATIONS

We have four types of stations whose data is processed and kept at the Climatological Section. These are :

• Rainfall stations
• Temperature stations
• Synoptic stations
• Upper Air Observing stations.

Temperature stations are those that measure and record surface air temperature in addition to rainfall. There are 62 temperature stations in Kenya.

Synoptic stations are those which observe and record all the surface meteorological data. These observations includes rainfall, temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, solar radiation, clouds, atmospheric pressure, sun shine hours, evaporation and visibility. These stations are run by the Kenya Meteorological Departmental staff. At present there are 27 synoptic stations in Kenya.

CLIMATOLOGICAL DATA BANK

Data is normally received from the above stations on monthly basis and then processed at the Climatological Section. The data is processed in monthly and long term means. Different data types are computed in different forms.
Daily rainfall data is analysed on monthly basis per station to get , total rainfall, maximum fall in 24 hours, number of days of hail, rain and thunder storms. Temperatures are processed to get monthly means on maximum and minimum temperatures and extreme temperatures. Dry bulb temperatures are also averaged on monthly basis. All other meteorological data are averaged on a monthly basis and the monthly averages are kept in our Climatological data bank. The data is periodically updated to get Climatological statistics.

The data is stored in hard copies ( paper ) and microfilms. In future the data may also be stored in CD-ROM and microfiches.

REQUESTING FOR DATA

Climatological and other data is available to users on request.
 

PUBLICATIONS

A publication on Climatological Statistics is published and is available to users on request. This publication contains long term means of all meteorological parameters such as rainfall, temperature windspeed and direction . It contains a total of 90 stations. The Climatological statistics is updated regularly. The current Climatological Statistics is the "1990 Edition".