Climate of Mount Kenya

The climate of Mount Kenya has played a critical role in the development of the mountain, influencing the topography and ecology amongst other factors. The area around Mount Kenya is covered by a comparably large number of weather station data with long measurements series and thus the climate is well recorded.^[1] It has a typical equatorial mountain climate which Hedberg described as winter every night and summer every day.^[2]

The year is divided into two distinct wet seasons and two distinct dry seasons which mirror the wet and dry seasons in the Kenyan lowlands. As Mount Kenya ranges in height from 1,374 metres (4,508 ft) to 5,199 metres (17,057 ft) the climate varies considerably over the mountain and has different zones of influence. The lower, south eastern slopes are the wettest as the predominant weather system comes from the Indian Ocean. This leads to very dense montane forest on these slopes. High on the mountain most of the precipitation falls as snow, but the most important water source is frost. Combined, these feed 11 glaciers.