The research was announced at the annual assembly of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna in mid-April and will soon be published in the International Journal of Climatology.
Dwindling Snowfall
The scientists say that the Kilimanjaro glacier findings emphasize another way that global warming is affecting the world.
So far many experts have focused on the impact caused by rising sea levels and temperatures. But less has been said about the effects of lower precipitation.
Kilimanjaro's shrinking glaciers buttress evidence that East Africa is drying out. And that's a phenomenon that needs to be studied further, researchers point out.
"It is quite difficult on a regional scale to say just why there is less precipitation in East Africa," said Julian Dowdeswell, director of the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge in England.
"We just don't know. It's at a scale that's difficult."
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