Re: Waking up covered in dew

Gerrit Hanenburg (ghanenbu@inter.nl.net)
Sat, 17 Aug 1996 15:34:28 GMT

nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) wrote:

>>Pardon my intrusion, but why are you concerned about dew and even
>>hypothermia? I thought all of this was supposed to be happening in a
>>tropical semi-arid African savanna.

>Grin :-) I grew up there! Most of it is at high altitude (5,000 feet
>plus), and mild frosts at night are common in the dry season. While
>dew is not the problem that it is in the UK, there is often enough to
>make things wet, and it is often cold enough to cause hypothermia.

But exactly where did you grow up? That can make a lot of difference.
We're talking about possible ape/hominid country here.
Goodall in "The Chimpanzees of Gombe" reports for the Gombe region an
average maximum temperature ranging from about 25C-26.5C in the wet
season and 27C-30C in the dry season,while the mean minimum
temperature stays between 18.5C and 21C.
As far as savanna is concerned,Sinclair in "Serengeti II" reports a
relatively constant mean monthly maximum of 27-28C at Seronera
(central Serengeti),while minimum temperature varies from 16C in the
hot months (October-March) to 13C during May-August.
None of these report nightly frost.

Gerrit.