Analysis of Start, End and Length of the Rainfall Season Seasons for Mbeya, Southwestern Highland in Tanzania

Tanzania like any other developing countries is depending on uncertain rainfall for their subsistence and commercial agriculture. In this paper the start and end of rains for Mbeya Meteorological Station in Tanzania Mainland was analyzed and critically examined. Data were kindly given by Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) during face to face Statistics in Applied Climatology (fSIAC) workshop which was held at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) the year 2013 prior to online Course on Statistics in Applied climatology (eSIAC). In this study data were analyzed using Instat (for windows version 3.3.7) package developed by the Statistical Services Centre of the University of Reading. The analysis showed that much of rains start early December all the way to May. There is also 50 percent chance of having below and above the mean for both total annual rainfall and number of rains, in other word one in two years the total rains are below means likewise the number of rain days.

Applied climatology

Applied climatology has long been a niche domain, straddling the intersection between the social and natural sciences and populated largely by geographers explicitly interested in reframing human activities around climate. As human-atmospheric relations become increasingly embedded within institutions of governance, new narratives of and for applied climatology are emerging to champion particular atmospheric objects, orientations, practices and institutions into positions of policy relevance and investment priority. This paper attempts to understand these intersecting politics of ‘climate and society’ research by situating their emergence through three lenses of inquiry. First, we explore the historical disciplinary work of ‘application’ in geographical climatology, paying particular attention to how ‘relevance’ has been understood and practised. Second, we reassemble a missed disciplinary conversation about ideology in applied geography, and link this to definitions and rationales for applied climatology. Third, we explore five recent thematic engagements in applied climatology, to generate thinking about the institutions and practices of assembling climate in new circles of ‘application’, policy and elsewhere. The ‘applications’ that climatologists choose to pursue – and the ways in which they pursue them – are deeply political questions that reproduce decision-making logics, funding rationalities, notions of expertise and problem framings. In conclusion, we argue that, rather than understanding ‘climate’ and ‘society’ as stable entities with standard (e.g. quantitative) practices or modes of association, we might instead concern ourselves with the practices of assembling human-atmospheric relations.

Gove Hambidge (ed.), Climate and Man: The 1941 Yearbook of Agriculture. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office

This work marked the beginning of a new phase in applied climatology. After this work, new manuscripts would not just incorporate the rote description of statistics or regions, but attempt to place physical aspects of climate as a dynamic factor in the natural environment.