Town Tools builds free, public tools for Moshi and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.
From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/moshi-kilimanjaro-tz/weather-up-the-mountain
Everything else Town Tools shows for Moshi is read at about 850 m — the town, the dust, the rains. This page is read on the mountain instead: the height of the freezing level and the wind up where the camps are.
It is here mostly for the people who work up there. Around three crew go up for every climber, and a porter sleeps at Barafu in whatever they own. Knowing that the 0°C line has dropped below the high camps, or that the wind at summit height has got up, is the difference between a cold night and a dangerous one — and it is not something the town's own weather can tell you.
These are weather-model figures for the massif, not measurements on the mountain and not an assessment of mountain risk or an avalanche bulletin. Before heading up, read the official mountain-weather bulletin and ask the local guides; in winter, check the avalanche bulletin. In an emergency, call mountain rescue.
Around 3,000 m — the forest camps and the moorland: a light breeze, 10 km/h, SE.
Around 4,300 m — Karanga and Barafu, where the crew sleep: a light breeze, 10 km/h, NE.
Around 5,500 m — summit night, Stella Point to Uhuru: a gentle breeze, 15 km/h, E.
The next few days
Day
0°C level
Strongest wind aloft
Precip / snow
Today
4,750–5,000 m
a moderate breeze (~5500 m)
2.2 cm snow
Tomorrow
4,700–5,000 m
a moderate breeze (~5500 m)
1.1 cm snow
Wed 14
4,800–5,150 m
a gentle breeze (~5500 m)
20.8 mm
Thu 15
4,850–5,350 m
a gentle breeze (~5500 m)
54.9 mm
This is a weather model, not a decision to go up
These numbers come from a global forecast model reading a grid square over the mountain. They are not measurements taken at Barafu, and nothing on this page says whether it is all right to climb on a given day. That judgement belongs to your licensed guide, who is on the mountain and can see you.
On Kilimanjaro you cannot climb without a licensed guide — it is a park rule, checked at every gate. The mountain's real risk is altitude, not weather: altitude sickness has nothing to do with being fit or young, and its dangerous forms mean going down at once. Tell your guide how you feel, every day.
In an emergency on the mountain the call goes through your guide and the park's own rescue, not through this page — that is what the licensed-guide rule is for.
For crew: the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project publishes what a properly equipped porter should be carrying and wearing before the gate, including for the cold at the high camps. If your operator has not provided it, KPAP is the place to raise it.
Why the freezing level, and not the temperature in town
The freezing level is the height at which the air reaches 0°C. On Kilimanjaro it usually sits somewhere between the high camps and the summit, which is why the same day can be warm at Karanga and bitter at Stella Point. When it drops below about 4,700 m, Barafu itself is below freezing — and that is where the crew are sleeping, not just passing through.
The model's mountain is not quite the real one
The grid square this forecast is read from sits at about 5,828 m. Uhuru Peak is 5,895 m. That is close enough for the freezing level and the wind to mean something, and far enough that you should treat every number as the weather over the massif rather than the weather at one camp.
Two rains, and a mountain that keeps its own calendar
Moshi's long rains run March to May and carry roughly 71% of the year's rainfall; the short rains come in November and December. The mountain broadly follows them, but snow on the summit does not need a rainy season — it can fall in any month, and the wind at summit height changes far faster than the season does.