The temperature at the summit of Kilimanjaro – bikinis or brass monkeys?

Monday 1st October 2007

It’s a question many trekkers want to know the answer to – just how cold is it at the summit of Kilimanjaro. Well there is an old mountaineer’s saw that says that, above 4000m, for every 150 metres you ascend, the temperature drops by 1° centigrade.

Well, given that the average temperature at around 4000m is 0° centigrade, by the time you reach the summit you would have ascended through about 13 lots of 150m. In other words, the temperature would be around -13° centigrade. Pretty chilly you may think, but bearable. But this, of course, fails to take into consideration the windchill factor which can push that figure even further downwards to around -30° centigrade - and sometimes even lower. Certainly enough to make certain anatomical parts shrivel.

For a more scientific look at the summit temperature of Kilimanjaro than my back-of-an-envelope calculations above, follow this link to the University of Massachusetts’ geoscience
website which summarizes data from their summit weather station.

Alex’s breasts and Kilimanjaro >>