A Preliminary Analysis of Climatological Data from the Marsabit District of Northern Kenya: IPAL Technical Paper Number B-1

The Integrated Project in Arid Lands (IPAL) was initiated in 1976 in the Marsabit District of Northern Kenya to study the arid grazing lands ecosystems. One of the major inputs to the ecosystem is the climate. Rainfall, in particular, controls the moisture status of the soils, the abundance and distribution of vegetation and the availability of groundwater. Thus, the distribution and number of livestock and the size of the human populations which can subsist on the livestock are ultimately dependent upon rainfall and the balance between input and losses in the soil-plant-atmosphere system.