Dates and Stats

Dates

On Jan 26^th it was the latest sunrise here in Gilgel at 06:59. This means, that from now on the sun will be rising earlier, giving it time to heat us up more quickly to reach the peak at the end of March where I measured inside temperatures last year in the upper 30s.

6^th Feb is the halfway point of my second stay in Ethiopia. I’ve been here the second time for around 5 months and have 5 months remaining.

7^th Feb I will have been in Gilgel Beles for 1 calendar year (365 days.) At that point I will have been in Ethiopia for 438 days in total.

Temperature

Using the data I have recorded since I set my data logger up outside on 19/10/2008:

The hottest shade temperature was 34.5°C on 9 Jan.

The coldest temperature was 10°C on both 17 & 18 December 2008.

The overall average temperature (24 hours so that includes and average of day and night temperatures) = 23.3°C

This average temperature has been fairly constant, but it is the range of temperature that has increased. At the start the range was around 16°C to 30°C (14°C). By the end of January the temperature was changing over a day from 12°C to 33°C (21°C change) This is linked to the decrease in humidity after the end of the wet season (less water in the atmosphere to hold the heat during the night and heat up during the day). During the measuring period the average daily relative humidity has dropped from 80% at the end of October to 40% at the end of January.

Power

Sometimes here, there are short power cuts of a few minutes, and sometimes they have happened while I have been asleep or away from the house, but otherwise, I have been making a note power cuts.

Statistics for January 2009:

Of the 31 days in January there were 10 days with long power cuts.

8 started around 1830-1900. 7 finished around 2100-2200

The average length of a power cut is 2h30m during an evening although on Sunday 18^th Jan, the power went off from 10:30 to 16:50 and then again from 18:50-21:20.

Apparently these cuts are due to insufficient generation capacity. The hydro-electric generators cannot supply enough electricity to meet the country’s demand. (I also heard rumours that they sell electricity to neighbouring countries rather than supply their own population completely – but this is just a rumour.) The solution is to “ration” the electricity and switch off different regions on different days. If the pattern follows last year, it will get worse during the dry season as they have to slow down production or they will drain the dams and lakes. In this period the power usually is off for a whole day, every other day, or sometimes worse.